GNU bug report logs - #20385
Support curved quotes in doc strings

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From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>,  Nicolas Petton <nicolas <at> petton.fr>
Cc: 20385 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#20385: [PROPOSED PATCH] Support quoting 'like this' in doc strings
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2015 16:24:19 -0700

On 04/23/2015 01:07 PM, Drew Adams wrote:
> 1. You didn't answer my question about libraries being able to
> choose (possibly overridden by a user).

Sorry if the answer was unclear.  Under the current proposal, a library 
of Emacs Lisp code can choose either style, by using the style in its 
doc strings.  By default, the user will see the library's style.  So 
yes, libraries can choose.  As Eli mentioned, there's a mechanism in 
Emacs to display Unicode characters using approximations on less-capable 
displays, and in that sense the user will be able override a library 
that prefers curved quotes.

> Might as well say that you will
> allow folks to do what they like in their own fork of Emacs.

No, not at all.  Libraries that want to remain easily-editable in older 
versions of Emacs can continue to quote `like this'; their users and 
developers won't need to fork Emacs.

> 3. You have still given*no*  argument in favor of anything you've
> proposed here.  We've seen only the pseudo-argument that you find
> the Emacs way "ugly".

It's not a pseudo argument.  Appearance matters, and the older style is 
off-putting on today's displays.  This is why the GNU coding standards 
recommend against quoting `like this'.  See:

http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Quote-Characters.html

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