American programmers could not work without the humble parenthesis and might be surprised to learn that their English and Scottish counterparts never use them. Instead they use brackets: '(' and ')', square brackets: '[', and ']' , and curly brackets: '[' and ']'.
This was explained to me today when I was reading out some code to a Scottish customer. She stopped typing when I said "Open parenthesis..." When I pointed out the appropriate key on the keyboard, she said "Oh. I call that a bracket."
"Then what do you say when you want to refer to a 'Parenthetical Expression'?" I asked.
"We don't!"
So, what would they call this:
(I know, I know... There's no photo today! But how do you photograph a '('? )
This was explained to me today when I was reading out some code to a Scottish customer. She stopped typing when I said "Open parenthesis..." When I pointed out the appropriate key on the keyboard, she said "Oh. I call that a bracket."
"Then what do you say when you want to refer to a 'Parenthetical Expression'?" I asked.
"We don't!"
So, what would they call this:
(I know, I know... There's no photo today! But how do you photograph a '('? )
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