Why were parentheses chosen for function calls in most languages?
Whilst dreaming up a new programming language (keyword: dreaming), I wondered why parentheses were chosen for function calls. For example, in most programming languages, a function call would look like this:

    print("Hello, world!");

Was this decision based on algebraic functions from the time before programming was around? Perhaps the question could be asked in a different way if this were true. In my opinion, brackets are easier to type. They are typically closer or just as close as the parentheses keys; plus, they don't require a shift key. Why were brackets placed in an easier location on the keyboard than parentheses? Programming or not, parentheses are used much more than brackets (unless you are a hardcore Objective-C programmer).

**EDIT:** This is very related for the second half of my question but still doesn't cover the first part: [Why is is harder to type parentheses () than square brackets [] on a standard keyboard? ][1]


  [1]: http://superuser.com/questions/358218/why-is-is-harder-to-type-parentheses-than-square-brackets-on-a-standard-ke "Why is it harder to type parentheses &#40;&#41; than square brackets [] on a standard keyboard?"
Why were parentheses chosen for function calls in most languages?
===

Whilst dreaming up a new programming language (keyword: dreaming), I wondered why parentheses were chosen for function calls. For example, in most programming languages, a function call would look like this:

    print("Hello, world!");

Was this decision based on algebraic functions from the time before programming was around? Perhaps the question could be asked in a different way if this were true. In my opinion, brackets are easier to type. They are typically closer or just as close as the parentheses keys; plus, they don't require a shift key. Why were brackets placed in an easier location on the keyboard than parentheses? Programming or not, parentheses are used much more than brackets (unless you are a hardcore Objective-C programmer).

**EDIT:** This is very related for the second half of my question but still doesn't cover the first part: [Why is is harder to type parentheses () than square brackets [] on a standard keyboard? ][1]


  [1]: http://superuser.com/questions/358218/why-is-is-harder-to-type-parentheses-than-square-brackets-on-a-standard-ke "Why is it harder to type parentheses &#40;&#41; than square brackets [] on a standard keyboard?"