[weberc2]

The GP said brackets, not parens. Perhaps he misspoke?

[david-given]

Ah, yeah. I didn't twig until you mentioned it, but... if ever you get tired of emacs vs vi religious wars, try switching to discussing whether 'bracket' refers to a parenthesis or a brace.

Given the context, I'm pretty sure the OP was using the 'parenthesis' meaning.

[zem]

in commonwealth english, it's most commonly "brackets" for (), "square brackets" for [] and "curly brackets" for {}

[david-given]

Yeah, that's what I grew up with.

Where is it otherwise? Is bracket={} a USism? I've never been sufficiently aware to isolate the demographic.

[whiteandnerdy]

In British English, 'brackets' means parentheses, as opposed to square brackets or curly brackets (also called braces). Maybe OP uses British English.

[tekacs]

I'm also British, which may explain why I was able to read the GP's post first time.

[weberc2]

Ah, I never knew. Thanks for the information.