[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [Groff] Using \(aq in plain English words--bad idea?
From: |
G. Branden Robinson |
Subject: |
Re: [Groff] Using \(aq in plain English words--bad idea? |
Date: |
Sat, 29 Apr 2017 11:24:09 -0400 |
User-agent: |
NeoMutt/20170113 (1.7.2) |
At 2017-04-29T15:40:06+0200, Ingo Schwarze wrote:
> $ man groff_char
> [...]
> REFERENCE
> [...]
> 7-bit Character Codes 32-126
> [...]
> ' the ISO latin1 `Apostrophe' (code 39) prints as ', a right
> single quotation mark; the original character can be obtained
> with `\(aq'.
That reference, I'm familiar with.
> $ man mandoc_char
[..]
That one, I'd never read before. :P
> So yes, documentation kind of recommends "Don\(aqt listen".
I don't interpret it that way. In English typography, apostrophes
traditionally are rendered with a leftward slant.
See, e.g., < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe#Typographic_form >.
> Arguably, apostrophes are at least as common in english prose
> as single quotes, so the decision to make single quotes easier
> to type at the expense of making apostophes harder to type
> could have been questioned. But that decision was made a very
> long time ago, and changing it now might break large numbers of
> non-manual documents.
I'm not interested in changing it. Not every question I ask is a
prelude to some revolutionary scheme. :D
> Right now, mandoc does not do these substitutions, not even in
> -Tutf8 output mode, which could maybe be considered a bug.
> Or maybe not, since most manual page authors probably
> write "don't", and those who really care will probably use
> the more explicit \(oq\(cq for single quotes rather than `'.
I agree, and furthermore I advise grievous torture for anyone using a
grave accent and a "neutral" apostrophe as if they were paired,
symmetrical quotation marks.
Sad to say, GNU diagnostic messages have been triggering me for 20+
years by their monomaniacal obsession with this eye-gouging
typographical practice.
> > If the page author absolutely hates directional single quotes
> > used as apostrophes, wouldn't it be better to do something like
> >
> > .tr '\[aq]
> >
> > near the top of the document?
>
> That would break the rendering of quotes similar to the following:
>
> Golding wrote: \[lq]`They\[aq]re all dead,' said Piggy, `an\[aq]
> this is an island. Nobody don\[aq]t know we\[aq]re here.'\[rq]
Looks like a feature to me. The internal quotation marks should be
rendered with \[oq] and \[cq] instead.
Thanks for sating my curiosity!
Regards,
Branden
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature