5 ms·

Cool. Now can we find the person responsible for “smart quotes”?

tqkxzugoaupvwqr 9y ago
Aren’t this the correct quotation marks? " means inch or seconds and is only used because most keyboard layouts make it hard to type the correct quotation marks.
- carey 9y ago
  Inches and seconds should really use ″, U+2033 Double Prime, if you’re not going to use the ASCII quotation mark for everything.
  - vacri 9y ago
    The amusing thing is that we never care about this distinction in handwriting. "Oh, your two tiny vertical-ish lines denoting 'inch' are not ever-so-slightly slanted..."
    - thaumasiotes 9y ago
      In my handwriting, all quotation marks are pretty heavily slanted. That doesn't mean I would consider them distinct from hypothetical vertical marks. Fancy quotes are a display choice, not a distinct glyph.
- forapurpose 9y ago
  > " means inch or seconds and is only used because most keyboard layouts make it hard to type the correct quotation marks. I thought it was used because 7-bit ASCII had only 128 code points in which to fit all teletype controls, letters, numbers, and punctuation marks and symbols. They had to use each code point efficiently, and the ASCII double quote can be used as open quotes, close quotes, seconds, inches ... they also needed to support some European alphabets and therefore some punctuation marks, such as the single quote, double as accents when overtyped (using teletype control code points) on a letter.
mattbeckman 9y ago
If you're a Mac user, System Preferences > Keyboard > Text > Disable Smart Quotes or choose your quote replacement preference.
MartinCron 9y ago
And then ampersands, while we are at it?
- hug 9y ago
  Maybe a silly question, but what is the issue with the ampersand?
  - carey 9y ago
    It’s just an unnecessary, extravagant ligature of the letters "et", from 9th century Latin.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - IshKebab 9y ago
      So? Most symbols are 'unnecessary'. I'm pretty sure we could get away without ^ | # @ ` { } [ and ] for example. Hell Ancient Greek didn't even have spaces.
  - MartinCron 9y ago
    Inconsistent and problematic encoding and decoding of & in HTML, mostly.
MartinCron 9y ago
And then ampersands, while we are at it?

Aren’t this the correct quotation marks? " means inch or seconds and is only used because most keyboard layouts make it hard to type the correct quotation marks.

carey 9y ago
Inches and seconds should really use ″, U+2033 Double Prime, if you’re not going to use the ASCII quotation mark for everything.
- vacri 9y ago
  The amusing thing is that we never care about this distinction in handwriting. "Oh, your two tiny vertical-ish lines denoting 'inch' are not ever-so-slightly slanted..."
  - thaumasiotes 9y ago
    In my handwriting, all quotation marks are pretty heavily slanted. That doesn't mean I would consider them distinct from hypothetical vertical marks. Fancy quotes are a display choice, not a distinct glyph.
forapurpose 9y ago
> " means inch or seconds and is only used because most keyboard layouts make it hard to type the correct quotation marks. I thought it was used because 7-bit ASCII had only 128 code points in which to fit all teletype controls, letters, numbers, and punctuation marks and symbols. They had to use each code point efficiently, and the ASCII double quote can be used as open quotes, close quotes, seconds, inches ... they also needed to support some European alphabets and therefore some punctuation marks, such as the single quote, double as accents when overtyped (using teletype control code points) on a letter.

mattbeckman 9y ago

If you're a Mac user, System Preferences > Keyboard > Text > Disable Smart Quotes or choose your quote replacement preference.

MartinCron 9y ago

And then ampersands, while we are at it?

hug 9y ago
Maybe a silly question, but what is the issue with the ampersand?
- carey 9y ago
  It’s just an unnecessary, extravagant ligature of the letters "et", from 9th century Latin.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - IshKebab 9y ago
    So? Most symbols are 'unnecessary'. I'm pretty sure we could get away without ^ | # @ ` { } [ and ] for example. Hell Ancient Greek didn't even have spaces.
- MartinCron 9y ago
  Inconsistent and problematic encoding and decoding of & in HTML, mostly.

MartinCron 9y ago

And then ampersands, while we are at it?