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
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