Re: [groff] [patch] modernize -T ascii rendering of opening single quote

[Jeff Conrad]

> On Thu, Jan 31 2019 at 02:14:13 PM, Ingo Schwarze <address@hidden>
> wrote:
> > i just submitted the following patch to the groff bugtracker:
> >
> >   https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?55616
> >
> > The (identical) rationale and patch are reproduced below for
> > convenience.
> >

Bertrand Garrigues wrote:
> I've always found the rendering of the asymetrical single quotes like
> `this' quite odd, so I vote for.

I agree.  I’ve used nroff since the mid-1980s (when ‘\(oq’ and ‘\(cq’
didn’t even exist), and using accent grave for an opening quote has
always looked pretty amateurish to me.  A typewriter is typewriter, and
no amount of wishin’ and hopin’ will make it otherwise.  I’m fine with
diddles like “--” for \(em (which follows long-established typewriter
practice anyway), but I think some others (such as `word') just don’t
work.  I see no reason to treat ‘\(oq’ and ‘\(cq’ differently than
‘\(lq’ and ‘\(rq’.

I still coded as `word' and ``word'' because troff was the favored
output, but I winced at the resulting ASCII output.  I used (and still
use) a script to replace ‘``’ with ‘\(lq’ and ‘''’ with ‘\(rq’; it’s a
bit tougher with single quotes.  But with ‘\(oq’ already coded, I can’t
think of a good reason not to render it properly.

I vote for. Hopefully, I haven’t missed an obvious gotcha.

Jeff