Re: quote characters in stds

[James Youngman]

On Tue, Jun 07, 2005 at 09:15:04AM -0400, Karl Berry wrote:

> In the C locale, GNU programs should stick to plain ASCII for
> quotation characters in messages to users: either 0x60 (`) for left
> quotes and 0x27 (') for right quotes, or ' for both opening and
> closing, or " (0x22) for both opening and closing.  It is ok, but not
> required, to use locale-specific quotes in other locales.

I forgot to actually provide feedback.  The main thrust of the text is
agreeable to me though I think it might be better to be a little more
prescriptive - that is, I believe that the standard should probably
suggest a preferred alternative.

Secondly, the standard should state that if it is ever likely that
someone will need to process the output of your program with another
program, then the documentation for your program should clearly
indicate how it does quoting and how the various 'corner cases' are
handled.

Regards,
James.