Pedants' Paradise

[teamsaint]

but it doesn't look very nice. (especially when you have two together at the end, (especially))

and where does double brackets come into Bodmas?
a sort of Welsh style BBodmas?

[french frank]

and where does double brackets come into Bodmas?
a sort of Welsh style BBodmas?

Work from inside to outside.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

... it may not be good enough for writing prose (or poetry, for that matter). If pushed, I'd say, 'It's inherently wrong'. :-)

[Pabmusic]

hello pedants.(In a good way, obviously).

A question.

Is it ok to have brackets inside brackets?

Whether it is or not (and I've read - avidly - the posts above) it's usually easy enough to avoid, as I just have. If you really need parentheses within brackets, use dashes - it looks quite classy - or even commas, like this, but using different styles of brackets looks awkward if it's not an academic paper, a bibliography or some such.

[french frank]

Whether it is or not (and I've read - avidly - the posts above) it's usually easy enough to avoid, as I just have. If you really need parentheses within brackets, use dashes - it looks quite classy - or even commas, like this, but using different styles of brackets looks awkward if it's not an academic paper, a bibliography or some such.

Total agreement. I'd say different styles of brackets are a complete no-no (and I've never seen them used outside mathematical contexts, anyway).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I have seen square brackets mixed with curved ones, but not with the wavy sort.

[Pabmusic]

I have seen square brackets mixed with curved ones, but not with the wavy sort.

I've never used the wavy sort, but I have used square brackets within a long quotation, to show that the comment inside the brackets is not part of the quotation:

"…We stayed on the cliff tops with a Mrs F[iggins]…"

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've never used the wavy sort, but I have used square brackets within a long quotation, to show that the comment inside the brackets is not part of the quotation:

"…We stayed on the cliff tops with a Mrs F[iggins]…"

Yes. It adds clarity.

[french frank]

I have used square brackets within a long quotation, to show that the comment inside the brackets is not part of the quotation:

"…We stayed on the cliff tops with a Mrs F[iggins]…"

I take back/modify my dogmatic statement. That is a recognised use of square brackets, especially to indicate an editorial insertion/amendment (and which could conceivably be enclosed in normal parentheses [sic]).

But I don't think BODMAS applies here, team!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Gosh! BODMAS!

I'd forgotten all about that and had to look it up.

[teamsaint]

Just stumbled on this in " The Rest is Noise".

Leibiwitz(an Austrian by birth[sic]) represents.....

probably best to just substitute commas for the brackets here, and remove the unsightly double bracket.

[french frank]

Leibiwitz(an Austrian by birth[sic]) represents.....

probably best to just substitute commas for the brackets here, and remove the unsightly double bracket.

And why does it need a [sic] after 'birth' anyway? 'An Austrian by birth' seems hard to misinterpret.

[teamsaint]

And why does it need a [sic] after 'birth' anyway? 'An Austrian by birth' seems hard to misinterpret.

I wondered that too !

it was part of a quote and it seems he may have been french.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Leibowitz

[subcontrabass]

I wondered that too !

it was part of a quote and it seems he may have been french.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Leibowitz

But note he was born in Warsaw, which at the time of his birth (1913) was in the Russian empire.

[french frank]

But note he was born in Warsaw, which at the time of his birth (1913) was in the Russian empire.

So how did that make him Austrian by birth, with or without a [sic]?