[bug #62638] maybe call U+0027 a "single quote" in some contexts

[Dave]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?62638>

                 Summary: maybe call U+0027 a "single quote" in some contexts
                 Project: GNU troff
               Submitter: barx
               Submitted: Wed 15 Jun 2022 10:36:02 PM CDT
                Category: General
                Severity: 1 - Wish
              Item Group: Documentation
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
         Planned Release: None


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Follow-up Comments:


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Date: Wed 15 Jun 2022 10:36:02 PM CDT By: Dave <barx>
In bug #60836, I said:

I wonder whether, in a coding rather than a typesetting context, "neutral
apostrophes" is a better descriptor than "single quotes."  Programmers are
certainly more used to calling them single quotes; and even to noncoders,
either term should be understandable.  Also, as delimiters for strings, they
function semantically more as quotes than as apostrophes.

Branden reasonably counters, "I can use ["neutral apostrophe"] unambiguously
in any context."  There's something to be said for consistent terminology, a
point Ralph recently made
<https://lists.gnu.org/r/groff/2022-05/msg00010.html>.

On the third hand, Ralph's point was about consistency in usage between groff
docs and the rest of the world, which might just as well argue in favor of the
term readers are more used to in contexts of coding in other languages, most
of which deem that character a single quote.

So whether anything should be changed is an open question.  I don't feel
strongly about either term.







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