Re: [Groff] Using \(aq in plain English words--bad idea?

[G. Branden Robinson]

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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