merits of Lisp vs Python

[tim.peters at gmail.com]

[Bill Atkins]
>> (Why are people from c.l.p calling parentheses "brackets"?)

[Kaz Kylheku]
> Because that's what they are often called outside of the various
> literate fields.

For example, the English are "outside of the various literate fields"?

FWIW, Python documentation consistently uses the jargon:

    () parentheses
    {} braces
    [] brackets

That matches North American conventions, but occasionally confuses an
international audience (for example, the English call parentheses
"brackets" or "round brackets").

There's also a long tradition in both mathematics and computer science
of using "bracket" as a generic term for any syntactic device used in
pairs.  For example, the "Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language
Algol 60" way back in 1963 even called "begin" and "end" brackets.  If
it's tempting to call the authors of that illiterate too, keep in mind
that John McCarthy was one of them -- although I'm sure Peter Naur
would be willing to take the blame for dumbing it down for Europeans ;-)