[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.