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Re: origin of `notation'


From: Alan Mackenzie
Subject: Re: origin of `notation'
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:27:15 -0000
User-agent: tin/1.9.6-20101126 ("Burnside") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/8.2-STABLE (amd64))

Hi, Bob.

Bob Proulx <bob@proulx.com> wrote:
> Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Buchs, Kevin wrote:
>> > In emacs documentation, what is the origin of using the accent
>> > grave (backtick) to introduce a quoted phrase, often a command,
>> > while using an apostrophe to terminate it.  Example: (info) Keys
>> > and Commands: 1st paragraph: "binding" is quoted as such, but 2nd
>> > paragraph, `next-line' is quoted that way. If someone who knows
>> > the answer will take the time to answer, I promise I will document
>> > it on the Emacs wiki. Does this extend beyond emacs? Beyond GNU &
>> > FSF?

>> That's what Texinfo produces for symbols in programming languages,
>> like Lisp and C, in the on-line manual.  (In the printed manual,
>> there's no quotes, but the name of the symbol is typeset in monospace
>> typeface.)

> In some typical font long ago the two symbols ` and ' were symmetrical
> mirror images of each other.  In those days the apostrophe was
> rendered in an image that looked like the UTF-8 U+2019 symbol ? and
> the result was `...? which looked quite normal.  I know some people
> (hello Karl!) who continue to hack their current fonts to maintain
> that effect.  Of course in today's fonts the apostrophe is most
> typically rendered as a single vertical without any slant and the
> original presentation effect is lost.

In the font on my Linux tty, ` and ' are still (almost) symmetrical
glyphs.  Just read info on a tty, and all will be forgiven.  :-)

> Bob

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).



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