Yes, they used to be there.  See
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fac/mark.guzdial/squeak/notes/curlybraces.html
and
http://squeak.cs.uiuc.edu/mail/squeak.old/msg00065.html for background.

-david

> -----Original Message-----
> From: squeak-dev-admin at lists.squeakfoundation.org 
> [mailto:squeak-dev-admin at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On 
> Behalf Of Kris Gybels
> Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 7:25 AM
> To: squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org
> Subject: Brace nodes assignment
> 
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I distinctively seem to remember that once it was possible in 
> squeak to 
> do something like:
> 
> { x. y } := { 1. 2.}
> 
> to give two variables a value at once. But when I tried this just a 
> minute ago it didn't parse. Is my memory failing on me and 
> was it just 
> never possible to begin with or do I have the wrong syntax? If this 
> feature was in there before but is now removed can anybody 
> tell me why 
> it was removed? It seemed like such a good language feature to me :)
> 
>