3 ms·

For character sets, typing is use, so the asker is directly using them in order to ask what their use is. It's sufficient for their use to be talking about them

• dullcrisp 2y ago
  I’d like to tell you about the new Glőrbl character that I invented. You can use it for referring to the new Glőrbl character that I invented.
  • BugsJustFindMe 2y ago
    That's cute, except you don't need to invent anything new here. There are already accent marks used in the character set. Note that they did not ask why there are symbols ÀÁÂ etc, so the presence of accents is already understood and accepted. And given that the character set is constructed to include accented letters, it is extremely reasonable to include the ability to talk about the accent marks themselves. Otherwise you would have to resort to the quite clumsy "the thing on top of àìòèù" to introduce any discussion of the uses of grave accents to people who don't yet know what the phrase "grave accent" means instead of just writing "`", which would be akin to saying that we don't need to write the letter "A" by itself to talk about the letter "A" and could instead say things like "the letter at the beginning of the words Apple and Among". Like...yes...you can do that. But it's less good than the alternative of not doing that.