Re: Question about quotation rules

[Rob Pierce]

Hey Anthony,

- Original Message -
> From: "Anthony J. Bentley" <anth...@anjbe.name>
> To: "Rob Pierce" <r...@2keys.ca>
> Cc: "misc" <misc@openbsd.org>
> Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2015 12:26:04 AM
> Subject: Re: Question about quotation rules

> Hi Rob,
> 
> Rob Pierce writes:
>> Good evening,
>> 
>> Is there a written/unwritten rule for using quotation marks? Do man pages and
>>  web pages follow the same rules?
>> 
>> When would I use 'this', "this", `this', ``this'', “this“, etc.?
> 
> Generally:
> 
> In manuals, use .Dq and .Sq for double and single quotes.
> 
> In www, use " and '.
> 
> 
> There are some other macros in mdoc(7) that generate quote marks (.Qq
> and friends), when you specifically need straight quotes (e.g., code
> listings) and can't just type " directly (e.g., on a macro line).
> 
> For personal webpages I use UTF-8 quotes (U+2019/A, U+201C/D) directly.
> But for pages with many authors, like www.openbsd.org, it's best to go
> with what's simple and works: " and '. Keep the burden on authors light.
> The text is what's important.
> 
> `` '' is an artifact. The only place they look balanced is on the console
> and in troff's PDF output. Everywhere else (such as the xterm and firefox
> defaults) has displayed this unbalanced for years. " looks better and is
> easier to type.
> 
> --
> Anthony J. Bentley

Great - that is the guidance I was looking for. Thanks!

Re: Question about quotation rules

[Rob Pierce]

- Original Message -
> From: "Random832" <random...@fastmail.com>
> To: "misc" <misc@openbsd.org>
> Sent: Friday, September 11, 2015 8:09:10 PM
> Subject: Re: Question about quotation rules

> Rob Pierce <r...@2keys.ca> writes:
> 
>> Good evening,
>>
>> Is there a written/unwritten rule for using quotation marks? Do man
>> pages and web pages follow the same rules?
>>
>> When would I use 'this', "this", `this', ``this'', “this“, etc.?
>>
>> I guess this can be both a source problem as well as a display problem.
>>
>> Any suggestions regarding reasonable expectations for web page/man
>> page consistency?
> 
> There are macros for quotes in manpages in mdoc(7). The rendering is
> device-dependent - on terminals, it will be unicode quotation marks in
> unicode locales, and ``this'' in non-unicode locales.

Ok - thanks for your response. I have been looking at mdoc...

Re: Question about quotation rules

[Anthony J. Bentley]

Hi Rob,

Rob Pierce writes:
> Good evening,
> 
> Is there a written/unwritten rule for using quotation marks? Do man pages and
>  web pages follow the same rules?
> 
> When would I use 'this', "this", `this', ``this'', “this“, etc.?

Generally:

In manuals, use .Dq and .Sq for double and single quotes.

In www, use " and '.


There are some other macros in mdoc(7) that generate quote marks (.Qq
and friends), when you specifically need straight quotes (e.g., code
listings) and can't just type " directly (e.g., on a macro line).

For personal webpages I use UTF-8 quotes (U+2019/A, U+201C/D) directly.
But for pages with many authors, like www.openbsd.org, it's best to go
with what's simple and works: " and '. Keep the burden on authors light.
The text is what's important.

`` '' is an artifact. The only place they look balanced is on the console
and in troff's PDF output. Everywhere else (such as the xterm and firefox
defaults) has displayed this unbalanced for years. " looks better and is
easier to type.

-- 
Anthony J. Bentley

Re: Question about quotation rules

[Random832]

Rob Pierce  writes:

> Good evening,
>
> Is there a written/unwritten rule for using quotation marks? Do man
> pages and web pages follow the same rules?
>
> When would I use 'this', "this", `this', ``this'', “this“, etc.?
>
> I guess this can be both a source problem as well as a display problem.
>
> Any suggestions regarding reasonable expectations for web page/man
> page consistency?

There are macros for quotes in manpages in mdoc(7). The rendering is
device-dependent - on terminals, it will be unicode quotation marks in
unicode locales, and ``this'' in non-unicode locales.