I'm currently learning objective-c. What exactly do the square braces around things signify and is there any difference between using that and using a period (I'm from a .NET world so this would be simpler for me).  Thanks.
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You can use a standard dot notation or a method call in Objective-C to access a property of an object in Objective-C.  myObject.property = YES;   or  [myObject setProperty:YES];   Is there a difference in performance (in terms of accessing the property)? Is it just a matter of preference in terms of coding style?
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My question is told in a few words: Why do you write $E[X]$ in square brackets instead of something like $E(X)$? Probably it is not a "function". How would you call it then? This question also applies for $Var[X]$.
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When using views to display start and end date by default it adds "to" text in between two dates, I was wondering what is the appropriate way to convert "to" to "-" or anything else.  Thanks
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I got a question when reading this text:     The name of the decorator should be prepended with an @ symbol.   Should we write "a @ symbol" or "an @ symbol"? As "@" is in fact "at", I would think "an" should be used to avoid the coexistence of two vowels one after the other.  More generally, what is the general rule to know if we have to write "a" or "an" before other symbols like "€", etc.? Is it based on how the symbol is read?
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Possible Duplicate:          I've been seeing that expression for over 10 years now. I've been trying to think what it's good for. Since I see it mostly in #defines, I assume it's good for inner scope variable declaration and for using breaks (instead of gotos.)  Is it good for anything else? Do you use it?
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Say I had;   \begin{equation}   \begin{cases}      x = 0 \\      y = 0 \\      z = 0     \end{cases}     \qquad \text{and} \qquad     \begin{cases}      x = a \\      y = a \\      z = b     \end{cases}   \end{equation}   How could I insert a brace ( } ) in the second 'cases' to say x and y are equal to a. (i.e. } = a ).   I hope this is clear, if not I can sketch it out - just let me know!  Thanks in advance!
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Speaking of tilesource urls such as   http://{s}.tile.stamen.com/watercolor/{z}/{x}/{y}.png  is there any technical documentation or canonical reference for the curly braces syntax?  I'd specifically like to know what other things can be used in curly braces, and in which places, and how they work.
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I sometimes see square brackets used while quoting.  My assumption is that they are replacing a pronoun with what the object of the pronoun, but I never know for sure because I don't usually get to see what the original quote looks like before the modification.  What are these called and what are the rules of use?
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Can anyone recommend a C or Objective-C library for HTML parsing? It needs to handle messy HTML code that won't quite validate.  Does such a library exist, or am I better off just trying to use regular expressions?
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Why does the  exist in modern languages such as C# and Java? Is it purely a self documenting code feature, or does it serve any actual purpose?  For instance the following example:  Class1 obj = new Class1();  Class1 foo() {     return new Class1(); }   Is as easy to read as the more Pythonesque way of writing it:  Class1 obj = Class1();  Class1 foo() {     return Class1(); }   EDIT:  hit the nail on the head with the clarification of the question: Why did they choose this syntax?
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Asume the following search queries: osx, cocoa, iphone, xcode, applescript, mac, carbon    Searching for osx, cocoa, iphone or xcode like:   http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=osx   Results into searching by tag:   http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/osx   While searching for applescript, mac and carbon like:   http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=applescript   Results into searching by string.  Yes, I know how to search by tags using brackets: [applescript] But why are the queries above interpreted differently? All queries are valid Stack Overflow tags! Why not convert all queries into search by string or search by tag? What is the logic behind? Tag popularity? It seems rather inconsistent to me.
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While reading a book, I found:     Objective-C supports the same conventions for specifying strings as does C.   I've thought "... as C does" is correct. For example,      As time goes, we come to forget almost everything.   Why were subject and verb replaced in the first sentence?
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Now that it's clear , there is an associated concept that I use all the time without knowing what it really means.   I suppose everybody made once a mistake with parenthesis, resulting  in an "object is not callable" exception. What's more, using __init__ and __new__ lead to wonder what this bloody __call__ can be used for.  Could you give me some explanations, including examples with the magic method ?
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I once learnt, that it is uncool to use $$, but why is that? Why does \[ not act as a abbreviation to \begin{align}? I noticed, that there is a difference, since one cannot use &amp; and \\ inside a block started with \[.
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So, when I was a comparative novice to the novice I am right now, I used to think that these two things were syntactic sugar for each other, i.e. that using one over the other was simply a personal preference. Over time, I'm come to find that these two are not the same thing, even in a default implementation (see  and ). To further confuse the matter, each can be overridden/overloaded separately to have completely different meanings.   Is this a good thing, what are the differences, and when/why should you use one over the other?
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Why does everyone tell me writing code like this is a bad practice?  if (foo)     Bar();  //or  for(int i = 0 i &lt; count; i++)     Bar(i);   My biggest argument for omitting the curly braces is that it can sometimes be twice as many lines with them. For example, here is some code to paint a glow effect for a label in C#.  using (Brush br = new SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(15, GlowColor))) {     for (int x = 0; x &lt;= GlowAmount; x++)     {         for (int y = 0; y &lt;= GlowAmount; y++)         {             g.DrawString(Text, this.Font, br, new Point(IconOffset + x, y));         }      }  }  //versus using (Brush br = new SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(15, GlowColor)))     for (int x = 0; x &lt;= GlowAmount; x++)         for (int y = 0; y &lt;= GlowAmount; y++)             g.DrawString(Text, this.Font, br, new Point(IconOffset + x, y));   You can also get the added benefit of chaining usings together without having to indent a million times.  using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)) {     using (Brush brush = new SolidBrush(backgroundColor))     {         using (Pen pen = new Pen(Color.FromArgb(penColor)))         {             //do lots of work         }     }  } //versus using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)) using (Brush brush = new SolidBrush(backgroundColor)) using (Pen pen = new Pen(Color.FromArgb(penColor))) {     //do lots of work }     The most common argument for curly braces revolves around maintance programming, and the problems that would ensue by inserting code between the original if statement and its intended result:  if (foo)     Bar();     Biz();     Questions:   Is it wrong to want to use the more compact syntax which the language offers? The people that design these languages are smart, I can't imagine they would put a feature which is always bad to use. Should we or Shouldn't we write code so the lowest common denominator can understand and have no problems working with it?  Is there another argument that I'm missing?
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What is the difference between math font \xx{} and \mathxx{} where xx=rm, bf, cal?  When I use them it seems that the \xx{} formats all the words after it.  But \mathxx{} formats only what is between brackets {}.  Is this correct?