On 08/06/2011 03:19 PM, John Jason Jordan wrote: > On Sat, 06 Aug 2011 10:54:51 -0700 > Joe Zeff<joe at zeff.us> dijo: > >> On 08/06/2011 10:23 AM, John Ghormley KJ4UFG wrote: >>> I suppose if you want quote marks that curve from the top in toward >>> the quote on both ends there is more than one keystroke on each end >>> involved. I totally eschew those marks as tedious and a bit old >>> fashioned, but to each his own. Using them would slightly >>> complicate the matter by adding two more keystrokes. >> >> Yes. That's what smart quotes, AKA "curly quotes" are. Some people >> like them, you don't. The OP wasn't suggesting that Scribus convert >> all quotation marks to them, but that they be an option. It occurs to >> me that it might be best to make them a part of paragraph styles, so >> that it happens automatically, without extra keystrokes, but only if >> you specify that you want them. Personally, I'd have little if any >> need for them, but I see no reason not to have them available for >> those who like them. > > This has been discussed on this list in the past. The conclusion is > that it is not a trivial matter. Let me give you examples from English: > > 1) In the U.S. it is de rigeur to enclose a period or comma within the > ending quote. Some Canadians do as well, but it is unusual elsewhere: > > Those are called "smart quotes." (U.S.) > Those are called "smart quotes". (elsewhere) > > 2) In North America nested quotes are reversed from elsewhere: > > "What do you mean, 'smart quotes'?" he asked. (N.A.) > 'What do you mean, "smart quotes"?' he asked. (elsewhere) > I don't think it's quite that simple for either 1) or 2), having looked this up in various sources when I was writing the Autoquote script. Certainly you want whatever you do to be consistent. These various possibilities definitely complicated the writing of the script.
> 3) Contractions always use a single end quote, but sometimes the quote > begins the word: > > Don't tell me you want smart quotes! (single ending quote) > 'Twas the night before Christmas. (single ending quote) > This poetic preceding single quote is definitely a tricky thing, and fortunately not used often. Also tricky is French, where in spite of using guillemets for quotes, and in many cases putting a narrow space between the guillemet and the following/preceding word, in contrast seems (AFAICT) to use a single curly quote for contractions (like d'?tat). It's getting hard to tell since various language websites break all sorts of rules on this, so looking at a website from whatever country is most unreliable. If you look at historical literature, it depends on when it was printed. Greg
