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

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Message #244 received at 20385 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Dmitry Gutov <dgutov <at> yandex.ru>, 20385 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#20385: [PATCH] Support curved quotes in doc strings
Date: Fri, 15 May 2015 00:49:01 -0700

Dmitry Gutov wrote:

> The other GNU packages have transitioned to using the straight apostrophes
> though, didn't they?

No, in locales where UTF-8 is allowed these packages typically use curved 
quotes.  Here are GCC and coreutils in my (UTF-8) locale:

  $ echo @ >t.c
  $ gcc t.c
  t.c:1:1: error: stray ‘@’ in program
  $ mv xzzy sfasdf
  mv: cannot stat ‘xzzy’: No such file or directory

The packages do use straight apostrophes in locales that lack curved quotes, but 
such locales are becoming less popular with time.

> The diagnostic messages can be treated differently (use fancy quotes, since we
> know this text will appear to the user as-is)

Sure, but that's more complicated as it'd mean two ways to generate curved 
quotes.  Another way to put it: we'd still need an easy way for users to type 
curved quotes in strings and once we have that (as per the Bug#20545 patch) then 
why not prefer the same easy way to type curved quotes in doc strings?

> As a Russian speaker, though, I'm not going to
> turn it off.

Completely understandable.  I suppose you can turn it off for the odd message 
where that's useful -- a bit awkward, but better than nothing.

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