Understanding "help" command description syntax - explanation needed

[Bob Martin]

in 730867 20141107 093651 cl at isbd.net wrote:
>Darren Chen <ccylily1314 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 在 2014年11月5日星期三UTC+8下午8时17分11秒，Larry.... at gmail.com写道：
>> > On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 7:13 AM, Ivan Evstegneev <webmailgroups at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > > Firtst of all thanks for reply.
>> > >
>> > >>>brackets [] means that the argument is optional.
>> > >
>> > > That's what I'm talking about (asking actually), where do you know it from?
>> >
>> > I know it because I've been a programmer for 39 years.
>>
>> that's awesome！！
>
>Well I started in 1971 or thereabouts.

1959 for me ;-)