4 ms·

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.