Fonts & Character Sets ⇒ Getting certain characters when not in math mode [ ] for example

[WasPentalive]

I am writing a manual for a programming language. I need to explain parts of this language that include the characters [ and ]. I am not working in math mode, just normal text. I have tried \], but that seems to work sometimes and not others.

! LaTeX Error: Bad math environment delimiter.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type H <return> for immediate help.
...

l.613 Once an expression is closed by \]
the top of the stack is stored in
? X

P.S. I have been working with TeX / LaTeX for about 10 hours now... A little prior experience almost 30 years ago.