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

[Ingo Schwarze]

Hi John,

John Gardner wrote on Tue, Feb 19, 2019 at 11:39:14PM +1100:

> Uhm. Is this issue more of a "would like to have" instead of something
> objectively problematic....?

Yes, absolutely.  You nail it.
It is not the end of the world either way.
It is merely polishing a minute detail
that occasionally, but not infrequently, causes astonishment.

> Which means that plugging this issue is really a drop in the ocean -
> there's countless more documentation out there, in plain text, which
> readers have to put up with seeing on a regular basis.

That is true.  I like to make manual page output as good as possible,
though, precisely to make the experience of reading manual pages
*less* erratic and annoying than the experience o reading disparate
READMEs and HOWTOs.

> ... free to define an alias, set MANPAGER to a wrapper
> script that pipes formatted output through tr '`' "'",
> or hack on their troffrc files ...

The point is sane defaults, *not* customization.
The point is that users should *not* have to worry about this
(which currently, some occasionally do).

Let's refrain from recommending nukes for the eradication of midges!

> As somebody in this thread stated before me, we're spending a little too
> much thought on what's essentially bikeshedding.

I'll rewiew the comments people sent during the last week, including
those from Ralph and others, then make up my mind and try to wrap it up.

Sometimes, discussing a small detail once (but properly) and making a
clear decision to stand by in the future can be useful.

Yours,
  Ingo