Hi onf, At 2024-09-23T01:02:35+0200, onf wrote: [...] > I wondered if perhaps having some minimal context could allow one to > decide whether the " character is actually a quotation mark or just > an inch mark, and similarly with '.
It's going to take me some time to absorb the rest of your message, but
for this part, the recommended practice is simple.
A document author should say (type) what they mean.
Some people, such as novice man page authors, expect the keycap
engravings on our keyboards to follow a DWIM ("Do What I Mean")
principle. That principle does not often apply to Unix or GNU software.
(C is very much not a DWIM programming language, so I find it remarkable
how readily its programmers expect the formatting language of man pages
to be DWIM.)
If you mean a foot mark or inches mark rather than a quotation mark, you
should say so to groff.
The "Units" table in the groff_char(7) man page has these entries.
Output Input Unicode Notes
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
′ \[fm] u2032 arc minute sign, foot mark +
″ \[sd] u2033 arc second sign
Regards,
Branden
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