Re: Why are tty-char.tmac and tty.tmac separate files?

[G. Branden Robinson]

Hi Ingo,

At 2022-07-31T20:02:52+0200, Ingo Schwarze wrote:
> G. Branden Robinson wrote on Sat, Jul 16, 2022 at 12:05:55AM -0500:
> 
> > I added fallbacks in tty.char for \[fm] and \[sd] (both CSTR #54
> > glyphs) in May 2021.  I seem to remember that Ingo followed suit
> > at least for the latter in mdoc.
> 
> mandoc renders as follows:
> 
> input:    \(fm
> -T ascii: U+0027 APOSTROPHE-QUOTE
> -T utf8:  U+2032 PRIME
> 
> input:    \(sd
> -T ascii: U+0022 QUOTATION MARK
> -T utf8:  U+2033 DOUBLE PRIME
> 
> The latest related commits are:
> 
> mandoc/chars.c revision 1.51
> date: 2022/06/26 20:30:00;  author: schwarze;  state: Exp;  lines: +2 -2;
> In groff commit 78e66624 on May 7 20:15:33 2021 +1000,
> G. Branden Robinson changed the -T ascii rendering
> of \(sd, the "second" symbol, U+2033 DOUBLE PRIME, from '' to ".
> Follow suit in mandoc.
> 
> mandoc/chars.in revision 1.24
> date: 2014/10/29 03:34:26;  author: schwarze;  state: Exp;  lines: +20 -20;
> Some fine tuning of console rendering of named special characters.
> Correct ASCII rendering: \(lb \(<> \(sd    # <=== look here ===<
> Make ASCII rendering agree with groff, using backspace overstrike:
> \(da \(ua \(dA \(uA \(fa \(c* \(c+ \(ib \(ip \(/_ \(pp \(is \(dd \(dg
> 
> Essentially, rev. 1.24 changed " to '' to agree with groff.

In 2014, I point out, seeking furiously to escape blame for churn...

> That was reverted by Branden in 2021 and i followed again,
> even though with a significant delay caused by lazyness on my part.
> 
> The mandoc ASCII rendering of \(fm has been stable since it was
> first supported in 2009.

There's just no way rendering \(sd the same as \(fm was right.  In the
U.S., with our antiquated system of weights and measurements, it is
still common to represent measurements like overpass clearances on
freeways with signs saying things like

  11'8"

...a length I do not choose at random, but in homage to a source of
immense, dark entertainment, as "American" as it gets.

http://11foot8.com/

Indeed I know that very location, having lived in Durham, NC for about a
year and a half once.

And of course these symbols are still used globally in the
degrees-minutes-seconds representation of angle measures.

Regards,
Branden

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