Re: quotation marks [was Re: TUTORIAL.de updated]

[Paul Eggert]

On 01/19/12 09:22, Drew Adams wrote:
> `...' is an Emacs doc & UI convention, not simply a "coding standard".

For user interfaces it would be better if Emacs quoted
“like this” or ‘like this’ (i.e., using directed
quote marks) in the typical case where these quote marks
are supported.  Quoting `like this' is no longer appropriate,
since modern displays typically don't render ` and ' symmetrically,
and it confuses new users when Emacs gives unusual interpretations
to ` and '.

One way to address this would be to prefer directed
quote marks within the Emacs source code; the surrounding
technology should recognize these quotes and do the right
thing when displaying diagnostics on ASCII-only platforms.

Use of ` for Lisp backquotes, shell backquotes, etc., would
be undisturbed, of course.  The only change would be for
when we're quoting something in English text.