The Egyptian braces came from the "Indian Hill C Style and Coding Standards as amended for U of T Zoology UNIX" http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.80.5542 I always found it amazing that a university had the time and funds to set up a committee to decide how every department would write their code. Then the only remaining copy is the one maintained by the Zoology department.