Re: [groff] [patch] modernize -T ascii rendering of opening single quote

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi,

Doug wrote:
> Still, this is a cautionary tale. What other sorts of
> documents would suffer badly under this change?

groff_char(7) here currently contains

    Output  Input   PostScript      Unicode Notes
    ...
    \[oq]   \e[oq]  quoteleft       u2018   single open (left) quote
    \[cq]   \e[cq]  quoteright      u2019   single closing (right) quote

and renders as

    Output   Input   PostScript       Unicode   Notes
    ...
    `        \[oq]   quoteleft        u2018     single open (left) quote
    '        \[cq]   quoteright       u2019     single closing (right) quote

That «`» would become a «'».  Technically correct, that is the new
`Output', but hides some history and may make things less clear.

Ingo, you originally mentioned

    However, the -T ascii output device still renders \(oq as "accent
    grave", also affecting macro packages that implement single quoting
    macros in terms of \(oq, for example mdoc(7) .Sq.

If it's the `modern' mdoc output that's primarily of concern, could its
macros that use \(oq make a subjective choice to pretty it up for
-Tascii and -Tlatin1?  I doubt many worry about old mdoc source
rendering differently over time.  :-)  And it would leave the rest of
the world alone for those of us with symmetric «`'», old documents, and
groff_char(7).

-- 
Cheers, Ralph.