[bug #60701] [mm, ms] should have quotation macros

[G. Branden Robinson]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?60701>

                 Summary: [mm, ms] should have quotation macros
                 Project: GNU troff
            Submitted by: gbranden
            Submitted on: Sun 30 May 2021 02:32:23 AM UTC
                Category: Macro - others
                Severity: 1 - Wish
              Item Group: New feature
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
         Planned Release: None

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Details:

These packages' lack of quotation macros, like man(7)'s, is probably a legacy
of AT&T's commitment to ` and ' as paired directional single quotes in the
Teletype and C/A/T era and the seeming rapid denouement of troff development
there after Kernighan added device independence.

This legacy was not justifiable in the ISO 8859 character set and Adobe Glyph
List era and is indefensible today.

` and ' in input are suitable _only_ for use as directional single quotes, and
even then we should discourage them because (1) they look asymmetric and ugly
in the input; and (2) if people repeat them for directional double quotes,
following the ubiquitous example of TeX, they will get incorrect spacing on
nroff devices.

At the same time, the various special character escapes for quotation marks
(see groff_char(7)) are cumbersome to type.

Moreover, applying macros to this purpose permits semantic uplift.

mdoc(7) has done some good work in this area.  We should consider something in
the same spirit.

The foregoing might apply to me(7) as well; I haven't looked yet.  I feel sure
that mom(7) already has it covered.




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