Describing language syntax

In reading about programming in books, help files, etc., you often come across statements like this one:

   <object name>.<method>([<argument>])

Programmers use this notation, with <, >, [, and ] to describe the syntax of a programming language:

< ... > is like a variable in math -- reserving space for you to plug something in.
[ ... ] denotes something that is optional.

Something outside brackets (The dot and parenthesis in this example) must appear exactly as written.