10 ms·

Looking around, I got the impression they're double rather than single quotes.

by akkartik 4y ago

xk3 4y ago
smart/soft quotes are usually: ‘|’|“|” but there are also other quoting glyphs in ASCII but especially UTF-8
- fuckstick 4y ago
  Why are they soft or smart? That makes no sense - they’re just open and close quotation marks.
  - elguyosupremo 4y ago
    Smart quotes really refers the feature some software has where it automatically detects what type of quote should be used (opening or closing) and puts that in so you can just use the same quote key at the beginning and end and it'll substitute in the right "smart quote".
  - drran 4y ago
    Because option to enable substitution of minutes(') and seconds(") symbols by proper quotation marks is often called as «Enable smart quotes». For example: 10° 33' 19" -> 10° 33« 19». Very smart!
    - anjbe 4y ago
      Good post! I must point out, though, the correct symbol for minutes and seconds is actually the prime. As in, 10° 33′ 19″.
  - bentcorner 4y ago
    They are smart because the feature that inserts them is "smart". "Context-aware quotes" or "smartly inserted quotes" might be more accurate. A PM somewhere probably thought "smart quotes" sounded neat, and here we are.
TheDong 4y ago
That's incorrect. This is a double quote: ", 0x22, ascii This is a smart open quote: “, 0x201c, unicode This is a smart close quote: ”, 0x201d, unicode By default your keyboard double-quote key produces the ascii double quote mark, and that is what's used for quoting in virtually every programming language. Word and many email clients will use smart-quotes by default, but they're pretty rare in programming, hence why the "some among us" phrasing calling them out as strange. That's what the linked repo is referring to by soft quotes, and the command given specifically uses 0x201d above.
- fuckstick 4y ago
  They’re not smart quotes - they're just open and close quotation marks. What is smart about them? And I don’t see how one is any “softer” than the other. People’s programming editors often do paren matching - does that make them smart parens? No they’re still just regular old parens.
  - TheDong 4y ago
    Why do we call them "hot dogs" when they typically have a very low percentage of dog meat (often 0% I think)? Why do we call it a "gravy boat" when it's not literally a boat? Did you know there are male ladybugs? Language is descriptive, and people do in fact call them smart quotes. That doesn't mean there has to be anything smart about them, and I'm not making the claim there is, I'm just using an agreed-upon term to convey what I'm talking about.
    - Manu40 4y ago
      "gravy boat" Cause it's shaped like a simple boat. Or sort of is. Kind of like how 'soft quotes' are considered soft because they aren't in a very hard like up and down position, and are instead positioned like a feather softly falling. (or so I guess)
    - fuckstick 4y ago
      > Why do we call them "hot dogs" when they typically have a very low percentage of dog meat Because historically, the insinuation was that cheap sausages contained dog meat, that’s why. Someone has answered your gravyboat question. And your ladybug example is bordering on blatant troll baiting. > Language is descriptive, and people do in fact call them smart quotes. That doesn't mean there has to Some “people” call them ATM machines even though the M stands for machine. > I'm just using an agreed-upon term to convey what I'm talking about. The agreed upon terms are Left Double Quotation Mark and Right Double Quotation Mark - nothing about smart quotes in the Unicode tables. I get that the term smart is used colloquially - but your comment suggests that their Unicode names are “smart”. I do think it is overall silly and confusing to refer to the characters themselves based on some formatting or automatic insertion feature.

Looking around, I got the impression they're double rather than single quotes.

xk3 4y ago

smart/soft quotes are usually: ‘|’|“|” but there are also other quoting glyphs in ASCII but especially UTF-8

fuckstick 4y ago
Why are they soft or smart? That makes no sense - they’re just open and close quotation marks.
- elguyosupremo 4y ago
  Smart quotes really refers the feature some software has where it automatically detects what type of quote should be used (opening or closing) and puts that in so you can just use the same quote key at the beginning and end and it'll substitute in the right "smart quote".
- drran 4y ago
  Because option to enable substitution of minutes(') and seconds(") symbols by proper quotation marks is often called as «Enable smart quotes». For example: 10° 33' 19" -> 10° 33« 19». Very smart!
  - anjbe 4y ago
    Good post! I must point out, though, the correct symbol for minutes and seconds is actually the prime. As in, 10° 33′ 19″.
- bentcorner 4y ago
  They are smart because the feature that inserts them is "smart". "Context-aware quotes" or "smartly inserted quotes" might be more accurate. A PM somewhere probably thought "smart quotes" sounded neat, and here we are.

TheDong 4y ago

That's incorrect. This is a double quote: ", 0x22, ascii This is a smart open quote: “, 0x201c, unicode This is a smart close quote: ”, 0x201d, unicode By default your keyboard double-quote key produces the ascii double quote mark, and that is what's used for quoting in virtually every programming language. Word and many email clients will use smart-quotes by default, but they're pretty rare in programming, hence why the "some among us" phrasing calling them out as strange. That's what the linked repo is referring to by soft quotes, and the command given specifically uses 0x201d above.

fuckstick 4y ago
They’re not smart quotes - they're just open and close quotation marks. What is smart about them? And I don’t see how one is any “softer” than the other. People’s programming editors often do paren matching - does that make them smart parens? No they’re still just regular old parens.
- TheDong 4y ago
  Why do we call them "hot dogs" when they typically have a very low percentage of dog meat (often 0% I think)? Why do we call it a "gravy boat" when it's not literally a boat? Did you know there are male ladybugs? Language is descriptive, and people do in fact call them smart quotes. That doesn't mean there has to be anything smart about them, and I'm not making the claim there is, I'm just using an agreed-upon term to convey what I'm talking about.
  - Manu40 4y ago
    "gravy boat" Cause it's shaped like a simple boat. Or sort of is. Kind of like how 'soft quotes' are considered soft because they aren't in a very hard like up and down position, and are instead positioned like a feather softly falling. (or so I guess)
  - fuckstick 4y ago
    > Why do we call them "hot dogs" when they typically have a very low percentage of dog meat Because historically, the insinuation was that cheap sausages contained dog meat, that’s why. Someone has answered your gravyboat question. And your ladybug example is bordering on blatant troll baiting. > Language is descriptive, and people do in fact call them smart quotes. That doesn't mean there has to Some “people” call them ATM machines even though the M stands for machine. > I'm just using an agreed-upon term to convey what I'm talking about. The agreed upon terms are Left Double Quotation Mark and Right Double Quotation Mark - nothing about smart quotes in the Unicode tables. I get that the term smart is used colloquially - but your comment suggests that their Unicode names are “smart”. I do think it is overall silly and confusing to refer to the characters themselves based on some formatting or automatic insertion feature.