Subject: bug#23425: master branch: `message' wrongly corrupts ' to curly quote.

From: Drew Adams <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2017 13:17:01 -0700 (PDT)

> This would render format strings containing these new specifiers
> unusable on Older Emacsen.  This would be worked around by providing
> advice to message, to be applied by external packages using the new
> specifiers.

Just what did you have in mind for that?

> There would be a significant amount of work amending format strings
> which currently use ` and ' to use %` and %'.

That's the problem for Emacs maintainers.  But the problem for
3rd-party code is much bigger, because it often needs to support
more than just the latest release.  Clement pointed this out well.

A user, including a Lisp user, should be able to write ' or ` and
get what s?he writes.  No behind-the-scenes application of makeup.
No prettying-up at all - you write ' and you get '.  Simple. Clear.
Lovely. Useful.  No need for high-heels.

> I think the topic has been pretty thoroughly discussed.  Are there any
> objections remaining to me implementing this change and committing it to
> master?

Sorry, but I cannot be in favor of this proposal, as I understand
it so far.

But I'm even less in favor of what's already been done: making
quote-translation the default behavior.  That's both a tragedy
and a travesty.  I cannot imagine what the maintainers were
thinking when they let this one get through.

It's fine to provide easy ways to _allow_ for different kinds of
quote translation.  But quote chars (including but not limited to
` and ') should NOT be translated by default.

By default, chars should be respected for what they are.  Emacs
should not substitute other chars just because someone working
on Emacs development considered the substitute chars prettier
or more modern.  That's nuts.  One overly zealous coder wreaked
havoc, and we'll be wrestling with the result for a long time.