2954: Bracket Symbols
| Bracket Symbols |
 Title text: ’"‘”’" means "I edited this text on both my phone and my laptop before sending it" |
Explanation
|
This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by an ([{《ANNOYED LAYMAN》}]) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. |
'The preliminary nerd has arrived and did his best to fix the article.' (Even though I'm not British, I thought it might be funny to reference the comic. {See what I did there?} )
Here is a list of what these symbols may mean as a preliminary to a full proper explanation: (feel free to update or completely replace this)
| Symbols | Comic text | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| () | Regular parentheses for setting stuff aside | Normal parentheses (like this). No joke here. |
| [] | Square brackets (more secure) | The sharper edges and corners mean these brackets hold things in more securely. Less likely to fall out. The () would do a pretty terrible job really. |
| {} | This stuff is expensive so be careful with it | All that graphical detail in the bracket would increase the production cost making it very expensive. So if these are used it must be about something expensive. |
| "" | Someone is talking | Normal quotation marks. |
| '' | Someone British is talking | Some British media uses these to note when people are talking, for example Harry Potter. |
| ‹› or <> | An Animorph is talking | Books like the series Animorphs or science fiction novels use these when a character is communicating nonverbally, for example telepathy. |
| «» | A French Animorph is talking | Literally just French quotation marks. |
| || | I'm scared of negative numbers but these sigils will protect me | Absolute indicators used in math to ensure a number is positive (ex. |-69| = 69) therefore protecting you and your equations from them. |
| **, __, // | I have a favorite monospaced font | Markup symbols for text to make it *bold*, _underlined_, or /italic/. |
| ~~ | I'm being sarcastic and I had a Tumblr account in 2014 | Strikethrough markup commonly used on sites like Tumblr to indicate that you don't really mean something you said. This is a somewhat archaic trend, but I still use it... |
| [([{()}],)] | These Python functions are not getting along | Random parentheses - Spaghetti code (badly maintained or written) in programming languages including Python will often be badly organized creating a mess of indentations and brackets used to create functions or loops etc. |
| ⌊⌋ | Help, I'm a mathematician trying to work with actual numbers and they're scary | Mathematical symbols meaning "floor" (i.e. round down to the next lower integer). (Someone else explain the joke!) |
| ʃ ʅ | Why are you trying to read my violin? | Randall is poking fun at the makings commonly found as decoration along the sides of string instruments like the violin. Someone else can explain the math. |
| |⟩ | Don't stop here--this is quantum country | This notation is used in quantum mechanics to notate a vector. This is called a ket, and the mirrored sign ⟨| is called a bra. Combining them as bra-ket gives the inner product ⟨|⟩. |
Transcript
|
|
This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks. |
Bracket Symbols
and what they mean
( ) Regular parentheses for setting stuff aside
[ ] Square brackets (more secure)
{ } This stuff is expensive so be careful with it
" " Someone is talking
' ' Someone British is talking
‹ › An Animorph is talking
« » A French Animorph is talking
| | I'm scared of negative numbers but these sigils will protect me
* * _ _ / / I have a favorite monospaced font
~ ~ I'm being sarcastic and I had a Tumblr account in 2014
[ ( [ { ( ) } ] , ) ] These Python functions are not getting along
⌊ ⌋ Help, I'm a mathematician trying to work with actual numbers and they're scary
ʃ ʅ Why are you trying to read my violin?
| ⟩ Don't stop here--this is quantum country
add a comment! ⋅ add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ 
refresh comments!Discussion
ummm. How does editing this stuff work. Is this HTML? Why can't we have a gooey? Also, I only sort of get this comic, but it's not that funny. <marquee behavior="scroll" direction="up">Here is some scrolling text... going up!</marquee> 172.69.58.102 05:13, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
- Have a WHAT? - 172.70.179.88 09:26, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
- A Gooey. Although I'm not sure how that would help.172.70.163.121 11:27, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
- I'm sure that should be GUI (Graphical User Interface. --141.101.69.76 11:40, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
The "violin" symbols look like an upside-down bag symbol (multiset symbol) to me, moreso than integrals. 172.69.58.135 18:09, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
Did my best with my first ever contribution - I know there's a chart feature but I cba to relearn html. Feel free to fix it and PLEASE finish my bad explanations. Qwikster (talk) 06:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
⌊⌋ are floor brackets (and you can now copy-paste them from here into the explanation as needed) 162.158.126.33 06:03, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
As for the spaghetti, in Python, it'd be a list containing a tuple containing a list containing a set containing an empty tuple. Probably doesn't mean anything specific and pretty much useless), but it *is* legal code 162.158.126.164 06:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
Yay, I figured out how to use a table! Qwikster (talk) 06:42, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
I'm British, ex 60+ years and I'm sure I was taught in school to use "for first person speech" and 'for quoting others'. I hadn't even noticed printers doing the opposite. But there again I didn't go to Grammar School. RIIW - Ponder it (talk) 07:36, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
- [Update] Researching this issue, using " or ' is acceptable in the UK as long as you are consistent in any work. However, most British authored books I have use '. Then, thought I, Douglas Adams did his own type setting, what did he use? In my box set of HHG2G it's '. But then I found a first (paperback) print run of Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency... And he used ". I don't think he would have been fickle, so that tells me the ' in British books is a printers' foible. (Controversially, they were responsible for a lot of extra u's being added to 'Latinise' spelling, even in words with Greek or Germanic roots and the replacement of Fall with Autumn) YMMV.RIIW - Ponder it (talk) 10:42, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
- I remember thinking it was to 'save ink'. After all in a 300 page novel with a lot of "speech", imagine how much savings you might have with 'speech', instead... ;)
- But I'll accept "printer's foible" (or 'prïnter"s foïble'!) as an answer, given that we were still taught to write with doubles (and using fountain pens). Pity they couldn't have also refused to print Oxford Commas, though, which are complete waste of space (and, in their case, ink!)... 172.69.195.64 12:30, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
- [Update] Researching this issue, using " or ' is acceptable in the UK as long as you are consistent in any work. However, most British authored books I have use '. Then, thought I, Douglas Adams did his own type setting, what did he use? In my box set of HHG2G it's '. But then I found a first (paperback) print run of Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency... And he used ". I don't think he would have been fickle, so that tells me the ' in British books is a printers' foible. (Controversially, they were responsible for a lot of extra u's being added to 'Latinise' spelling, even in words with Greek or Germanic roots and the replacement of Fall with Autumn) YMMV.RIIW - Ponder it (talk) 10:42, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
- I'm British, too, and as I recall my school says sixty years ago, the symbols () are just called brackets and parenthesis is just the grammatical construct in which they can be used. But you can use dashes or even commas to indicate a parenthesis. This has been discussed on such blogs has Ben Yagoda's Not One-off Britishisms. https://notoneoffbritishisms.com/2015/12/15/square-brackets/ --172.70.90.178 08:16, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
- Yeah - I don't know where this weird idea that British people use single quotes comes from - it's not my experience. Generally seems to be double quotes for direct speech, and single quotes for paraphrasing, scare quotes, 'jargonisms', etc. I've added to the explanation to reflect that a bit.172.69.195.176 11:33, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
- Similar vintage of Brit, here. Always taught to write "66s and 99s" on any primary quotation (you'd '6 and 9' quotes-within-quotes and 66/99 quotes-within-quotes-within-quotes). Except books often seemed to be single(-double(-single))-nesting, always assumed that was the US standard, as they tended to have the likes of "color" and "sulfur", too.
- In typing (typewriter, word processor and on into the internet age) I'd use ""s as my primary, unless it 'wasn't really speech'... essentially scare-quotes, or emphasis. Though in the text-only information age (usenet, etc), I'd use some of the others for /Italics/, *Bold* and _Underline_ purposes.
- For coding purposes, I'd have to use whatever the programming language required (I added the note about Pascal's character/string differentation), except in Perl, where I go for a 'sensible' mix of aesthetics/readability and practicality as I make wide use of the full range of options available to me, in quotation context, whatever doesn't clash badly with any use of q[array], qq{sub or hash}, qx|binary OR|, =~s/whatever is in my/regexp/, etc... 172.69.194.36 12:54, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
The integral sign (and its reverse) in the context of string instruments are the so-called 'F-holes', and they're not just decorative elements but help in the instrument(s) resonate more freely. Other shapes exist as well. See here for an in-depth explanation. 172.69.151.27 09:13, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
「かっこ」108.162.250.151 09:24, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
Randall missed an opportunity to reference catamorphisms i.e. banana brackets. There may be some better examples missed as well.
Who is that? 172.68.186.156 10:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
Likely reference to the quote and catchphrase "We can't stop here, this is bat country" from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? 162.158.134.242 11:05, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
The 'violin' quotes may look similar (but not identical) to the S-Shaped bag delimiters (U+27C5 & U+27C6), though these are normally used in the opposite order to enclose multisets. 172.71.90.10 13:52, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
The French quotation marks « » are better known as guillemets. They are also used in Spanish, and probably several other written languages. 172.71.142.167 15:10, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
The single-/double-quotes being recursively embedded with the other reminds me of a short story I once read. It had the form of a tale a person was telling of when he encountered a stranger with a tale of his own. In that tale, the stranger made the aquaintance of a particularly talkative individual. That individual reported the story he heard from a further interlocutor, that story featuring the reminiscences of someone else... Which came to a conclusion." ...is the way it ended.' ...and so went that story" ...but of course that was just what was heard.' ...if, of course, you could credit it." (It was more layers deep, of course, and with both starting quotes and the paragraph-maintaining standards of opening quotes, which yet still managed to suck you in.) Cannot remember who it was by/what it was called, but obviously the play on the style (a bit more clever than just "I met a man who said, 'I met a man who said, "I met a man who said, 'I met a man who said "..."'"'") made a big impression on me at the time. 172.70.162.18 19:51, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
"~~ I'm being sarcastic and..." The symbol ≈ means approximately equal to. This is much used in some engineering writing. "Output level should be ≈1 Volt." In casual work this may be approximated as "~", or "~~" which is less liable to be confused for a negative sign. -- PRR (talk) 04:02(+:03), 5 July 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- It can also be used for such as "~240V", AC power supply, and I use tildes an awful lot in Perl for both regexp operations and bitwise negation (though I also like it as a nicely distinctive choice of delimiter character for joined/split data transportation, at times) . As to the comic text, I sort of associate it with the 'decorated' usernames (akin to Dwarf Fortress 'item quality modifiers', but of course not inspired by such, not sure if they inspired it) along the lines of
.~·«wIeRdLyReNdErEdNaMe»·~.172.70.91.158 10:21, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
Square brackets NOT used in screenplays / teleplays
As the only person to get an Academy Technical Achievement Award for inventing screenplay text formatting (and a produced screenwriter in the WGAw), I’m here to let you know square brackets are NOT used in screenplays, teleplays, or stage plays to denote stage direction. Square brackets aren’t used for ANYTHING in those script forms. This should be corrected (by someone more conversant with edits) to indicate that normal parenthesis are used in screenplay or teleplays to indicate stage direction associated with specific passages of dialog. These are typically called “parenthetical action” or “parenthetical.” Some stage play formats omit parenthetical action but place parentheses around passages of stage action. But NEVER square brackets. -- SMGxkcd (talk) 13:11, 5 July 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Per this unsigned comment, I've made the requested move from square brackets to parentheses. I don't know if this is correct or not, so maybe additional discussion could confirm or refute this claim. Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 13:34, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
Animorphs
Should we start up an Animorphs category now? It's been referenced a few times now, 1380, 1817, and also in 1187 and 1360. Fephisto (talk) 14:00, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
- has existed since 2014, and this comic is (as of now) tagged with it: Category:Animorphs --172.70.114.29 14:16, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
Un-PC joke? or am I the Un-PC?
Double quotes: "Someone is talking". Single quotes: double quotes, but this someone is talking... with "missing teeth"...? Making fun of British dental hygiene is still common? Or died that out with Brexit? 172.71.99.139 20:10, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
- It's basically untrue, of course. The difference might be that in Britain 'cosmetic' dentistry isn't as prioritised as actually keeping them healthy.
- It doesn't go into it there, but the thing about a third of people "not having any natural teeth" in thr 1970s might actually have been a side-effect of prior eras dental care, where the opportunity to have all your teeth taken out to avoid problems in the future. Often arranged as a wedding present to newlyweds. So you had generations of adults (young to old) now using dentures (which either look better than 'natural' teeth or aren't made well enough). With the rise of the NHS (which initially got overwhelmed with people getting their traditional whole-mouth-removals 'free'), things changed so that it wasn't a luxury to get dental care, though it did become far less 'free at the point of need' than most other elements of healthcare (both as reaction against the initial overwhelming of the post-war services and from 'tweaking' (often by the usual political suspects) by one government or another).
- Right now, there are minor crises in 'dentist deserts' (the availability of NHS dentists being sparse for some regions, for various reasons), but if you are happily registered with a practice then you're probably as Ok as your own personal approach to dental hygiene allows you to be. And if you can (and want to) pay, then fill your boots with 'Turkey Teeth', whitening, straightening, etc, to make the "actually pretty ok" mouth whatever you think is 'perfection'. (Which often ends up giving you more of a 'plastic fake dentures' look than anything else.)
- I mean, not funny, but possibly educational. 172.70.91.96 22:52, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
