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Re: a Q quotation macro for man(7) (was: groff man(7) extensions)


From: G. Branden Robinson
Subject: Re: a Q quotation macro for man(7) (was: groff man(7) extensions)
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2022 12:23:56 -0600

At 2022-12-13T17:54:22+0000, Ralph Corderoy wrote:
> > Even with that wrinkle, a `Q` macro would be dead simple.
> ...
> > .\" Define opening and closing quotation marks as appropriate to your
> > .\" language and/or output device.
> > .ds oq \(lq
> > .ds cq \(rq
> 
> If the idea is to entirely do away with producing quotes manually then
> what about the second set which are normally used when quotes are needed
> inside quotes?  :-)  For example, here in English-land, we'd use ‘…“…”…’.

Hi Ralph,

I have thought of that, and of having a toggle which would switch the
interpolation of the paired quotation marks with the nesting level.

However, it (1) felt like over-design and (2) we don't have distinct
Commonwealth/US localization in any other respect in groff.

It's also worth noting that the feature is missing from mdoc(7), which
already sports way more quotation features than my most fevered dreams
would contemplate adding to man(7).

(UTF-8 content follows.)

    Quote   Open   Close   Function                  Result
    .Aq     .Ao    .Ac     Angle Bracket Enclosure   <string>
    .Bq     .Bo    .Bc     Bracket Enclosure         [string]
    .Brq    .Bro   .Brc    Brace Enclosure           {string}
    .Dq     .Do    .Dc     Double Quote              “string”
    .Eq     .Eo    .Ec     Enclose String (in XY)    XstringY
    .Pq     .Po    .Pc     Parenthesis Enclosure     (string)
    .Ql                    Quoted Literal            “string” or string
    .Qq     .Qo    .Qc     Straight Double Quote     "string"
    .Sq     .So    .Sc     Single Quote              ‘string’

[1][2][3]

So if the demand has been absent for mdoc(7) writers, one reasons that
it is similarly lacking for man(7) writers--unless mdoc is far less used
than its exponents would have us believe.

I'm also not aware of the use of nested prose quotation marks, even in
crude or incorrect usage, in any man(7) document.  Is anyone else?

Regards,
Branden

[1] There are multiple weird things about mdoc(7) apparent here.

    A. I wonder why Aq/Ao/Ac don't use proper angle bracket glyphs,
       U+27E[89].

    B. It offers all these quoting macros when mechanically Eq/Eo/Ec
       clearly suffice, and on top of that there's a heavy bias toward
       the specifics of C programming evident in the package, and yet it
       offers no "quote this character literal with neutral apostrophes"
       macros.  Baffling.

    C. The _only_ AT&T troff-incompatible, three-letter macro names in
       this package are these for brace enclosures, in spite of the fact
       that Cq/Co/Cc were available.  What gives?

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