RE: ASCII-only startup message?

[Drew Adams]

> > The ugliness argument was about the grave accent, `, not about
> > the apostrophe.
> 
> Although the ugliness argument is primarily about the grave
> accent, it is also about the apostrophe.  With most fonts
> “There’s” looks nicer than “There's”, and it’s better typography
> in English.

This is completely wrong.  Do you have a reference to back up
such a claim?

I have never seen any doc or typography guideline that favors
a quotation mark over an apostrophe for English contractions,
possessives, or non-word plurals.  Quite the contrary.  These
use cases are precisely the raison d'être for the apostrophe.

Start here: http://english.stackexchange.com/a/36048/51214

(And please consider fasting from kool-aid ASAP, would be my
recommendation.) 

> Either character will do, but there seems little point uglifying
> the former into the latter.

What was the point in uglifying the latter (apostrophe) into the
former (right single quotation mark)?

> To try to avoid spending more of our time about whether to use
> straight or curved apostrophes, I reworded the commentary to omit
> the apostrophes.  I tightened it up a bit while I was at it.

Hallelujah!  We are saved!  ASCII saves, and we can save as ASCII!

(But it is not about straight vs curved apostrophes.  Any ol'
apostrophe will do.  It's about apostrophes vs single quotation
marks.)

Anyway, it's the _wrong thing_.  Or if it helps you understand
better: it’s the _wrong thing_.