Re: [Groff] Rendering \(oq in ASCII and ISO 8859-1

[Ted Harding]

On 23-Dec-01 Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> But 'foo' as a substitute for `foo' is simply not
> acceptable to me in many situations.  For example,
> think of a man page documenting Lisp.
> `(...) and '(...) are completely different things.

Spot on, Werner!

I'm firmly of the view that groff should not
by default suppress differences which can be
important. The difference between what you get
when you press the ` key and what you get when
you press the ' key can be vital.

If there are problems with local equipment
when it comes to rendering the relevant glyphs
then this is a local question; let local users
set up local mappings to deal with their local
problems.

Which reminds me of an annoyance with my own
local, and mostly excellent, Brother HL1070
"PostScript" printer. In its version of Courier,
which I use for program listings, the renderings
of ` and ' look almost identical, each like '.
The difference, which requires very good eyesight,
is that the ' for ` comes out slightly thicker at
the bottom and tapering towards the top, while 
the ' for ' is thicker at the top and tapers towards
the bottom.

In that context, simply for clarity, it can be
useful to use a true grave accent (PS "grave",
groff "\(ga") and a true acute accent (PS "acute",
groff "\(aa") (which in devps, unlike devascii,
are unique characters distinct from "\(oq" and
"\(aq"). But that's my local solution to my local
problem ...

The displayed difference, e.g. on an X terminal,
between ` and ' may be ugly; but if it's the
only difference you've got and if that difference
matters (as Werner so sharply points out) then
you have to put up with it; just don't expect
groff to suppress the difference by default
for the sake of aesthetes who don't have to
worry about contexts where the difference matters!

And, while I'm at it,

Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year to All!

Ted.

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Date: 23-Dec-01                                       Time: 10:02:46
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