From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Nicolas Goaziou Subject: Re: "Smart" quotes Date: Tue, 29 May 2012 19:57:49 +0200 Message-ID: <87ehq227ky.fsf@gmail.com> References: <4FBB08CA.5060705@kli.org> <87d35u8rvk.fsf@gmail.com> <4FBDA56E.5030901@kli.org> <87zk8w6v4q.fsf@gmail.com> <4FC00CE0.6060308@kli.org> <87r4u75tg9.fsf@gmail.com> <4FC426AC.2030109@kli.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:54780) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SZQj0-0004v6-TO for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 29 May 2012 14:00:59 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SZQiv-0006y8-TP for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 29 May 2012 14:00:54 -0400 Received: from mail-we0-f169.google.com ([74.125.82.169]:49853) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SZQiv-0006xQ-KG for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 29 May 2012 14:00:49 -0400 Received: by wefh52 with SMTP id h52so3564081wef.0 for ; Tue, 29 May 2012 11:00:46 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4FC426AC.2030109@kli.org> (Mark E. Shoulson's message of "Mon, 28 May 2012 21:30:20 -0400") List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: "Mark E. Shoulson" Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Hello, "Mark E. Shoulson" writes: > Maybe, if it's all on one line. But if the quote is several lines > long, can you sensibly count the levels? Well, yes. > I guess it doesn't actually matter, but it starts to get weird if you > find yourself looking arbitrarily far back, and then you start > building in exceptions for crossing paragraph boundaries... True. I had the exporter in mind, where you always start at the beginning of the paragraph. It would be more difficult with search starting in the middle of the paragraph. > And then there's the fact that multi-paragraph quotes usually have an > open-quote for each paragraph but only one close-quote at the end... Some french typographers suggest to use a close-quote at the beginning of the paragraph to avoid that confusion, or to simply drop them (since they are a pain to maintain anyway). I don't know about other languages but, if that's the same, is it a good idea to bother implementing it? > Actually keeping count of what level you're at, accurately, is > a classic example of a non-regular language; you need a push-down > automaton to keep count, and regular expressions don't cut it. This is limited to 2 levels. > I'm rambling. In sum, I'm going to start off /not/ trying to solve > that problem, and assume the writer is going to use alternating " and > as typography requires and not try to second-guess what level we're > at. You are right, the problem will be easier to solve with both " and '. Though, "as typography requires" is not true. In France, the /Imprimerie Nationale/ suggests to use guillemots at both levels. Remember that typography is localized, which is the main difficulty of the implementation. Regards, -- Nicolas Goaziou