My Obession with Curly Brackets

I am totally in love with {curly brackets}. Why? Well because they do not make me feel as [boxed in] as regular ones. As a was writing a post on last week; I noticed how much I used them. That alone led me to research my obession with {curly brackets}.




{Curly brackets} and I were introduced some time ago in some advanced math class that I took in college. And we crossed paths again during a CIS class in my MBA program. So that confirmed for me that they were mostly used in mathematics and computer programming.

Yeah.... Yeah... Yeah...

But the questions still remained... I am using {curly brackets} properly? What is the main funtion? Why are {curly brackets} so popular?

Answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracket

Curly brackets (also called braces, or "squiggly brackets") are sometimes used in prose to indicate a series of equal choices: “Select your animal {goat, sheep, cow, horse} and follow me”. They are used in specialized ways in poetry and music (to mark repeats or joined lines). The musical terms for this mark joining staves are “accolade” and “brace.” In mathematics they delimit sets. In many programming languages, they enclose groups of statements. Such languages are therefore called curly bracket languages. Some people use a curly brace to signify movement in a particular direction.

Presumably due to the similarity of the words brace and bracket (although they do not share an etymology), many people casually treat brace as a synonym for bracket. Therefore, when it is necessary to avoid any possibility of confusion, such as in computer programming, it may be best to use the term curly bracket rather than brace. However, general usage in North American English favours the latter form. The term curly braces is redundant since no other type of brace exists. Indian programmers often use the name “flower bracket”.

Curly brackets are often used in internet communities and through instant messaging to indicate hugging.

So there ya go!!!

Now, I am happy.... Not really sure if I am using them in the right context, but I have no intentions of refraining from the usage of {curly brackets}. I just wanted knowledge.... and now that I have it, I will place a check mark next to this question in my mind!

Until next time............


M'Shonta