I'm sorry, but I don't understand your comment. If you are writing code(which is suppose is what you would need to use square brackets extensively for) it should appear in code tags which handles your square brackets fine. Am I missing the point of this thread?

This is an example of a post in which it is a bad idea to use CODE tags to protect a [ or a ] in some text.

I have now used those characters inside code tags to protect them, but lo and behold, now i want to post some acctual code for people to run...

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
while (<>) {
  my @foo = do_stuff($_);
  print $foo[1];
}
[download]

...I might even break up my program, with more natural text -- which describes the program I'm writting, and in which i may also want to use a [ or a ] (which i have again embeded, using CODE tags). A reason I might want to use them in my descriptive text is that maybe I want to mention what is so great about $foo[1] (there againn, i've used [ and ] inside code tags in my paragraph.

Now i'll finish the real code in my post...

sub do_stuff {
    return split /a/, @_;
}
[download]

Now, if people click the "d/l code" link on my post, they won't be able to run the code they download, because it will have some extra [ and ] characters at the begining and end, and even an extra $foo[1] (or maybe two)

If I hadn't used your suggestion of CODE tags arround the brackets, and i'd used the character entities instead, then people clicking the "d/l code" link would have had a happpy little proogram they couild run, without any changes.

i believe he wants [ and ] to map to [ and ] so he doesn't have to remember that they are [ for [ and ] for ]

i just keep a link to handy character table in my bookmarks.

if you use <code> tags in your non code paragraphs so you can type [ and ] then when people d/l your code they have a bunch of stray [ and ] characters in the most inapropriate places.

try and download this:

print "hello$/";
[download]

This post is a lot like my other post, but instead of CODE tags, i'm going to use the character entities for [ and ] blah blah blah

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
while (<>) {
  my @foo = do_stuff($_);
  print $foo[1];
}
[download]

...I might even break up my program, with more natural text -- which describes the program I'm writting, and in which i may also want to use a [ or a ] (which are now escaped entities). here's where i mention $foo[1] (using tt tags, and the character entites)

Now i'll finish the real code in my post...

sub do_stuff {
    return split /a/, @_;
}
[download]

Now, if people click the "d/l code" link on my post, they will acctually be able to run the code i have posted.