[scribus] Quotes.

[Gregory Pittman]

On 08/06/2011 03:19 PM, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> On Sat, 06 Aug 2011 10:54:51 -0700
> Joe Zeff<joe at zeff.us>  dijo:
>
>> On 08/06/2011 10:23 AM, John Ghormley KJ4UFG wrote:
>>> I suppose if you want quote marks that curve from the top in toward
>>> the quote on both ends there is more than one keystroke on each end
>>> involved.  I totally eschew those marks as tedious and a bit old
>>> fashioned, but to each his own.  Using them would slightly
>>> complicate the matter by adding two more keystrokes.
>>
>> Yes.  That's what smart quotes, AKA "curly quotes" are.  Some people
>> like them, you don't.  The OP wasn't suggesting that Scribus convert
>> all quotation marks to them, but that they be an option.  It occurs to
>> me that it might be best to make them a part of paragraph styles, so
>> that it happens automatically, without extra keystrokes, but only if
>> you specify that you want them.  Personally, I'd have little if any
>> need for them, but I see no reason not to have them available for
>> those who like them.
>
> This has been discussed on this list in the past. The conclusion is
> that it is not a trivial matter. Let me give you examples from English:
>
> 1) In the U.S. it is de rigeur to enclose a period or comma within the
> ending quote. Some Canadians do as well, but it is unusual elsewhere:
>
> 	Those are called "smart quotes." (U.S.)
> 	Those are called "smart quotes". (elsewhere)
>
> 2) In North America nested quotes are reversed from elsewhere:
>
> 	"What do you mean, 'smart quotes'?" he asked. (N.A.)
> 	'What do you mean, "smart quotes"?' he asked. (elsewhere)
>
I don't think it's quite that simple for either 1) or 2), having looked 
this up in various sources when I was writing the Autoquote script. 
Certainly you want whatever you do to be consistent. These various 
possibilities definitely complicated the writing of the script.

> 3) Contractions always use a single end quote, but sometimes the quote
> begins the word:
>
> 	Don't tell me you want smart quotes! (single ending quote)
> 	'Twas the night before Christmas. (single ending quote)
>

This poetic preceding single quote is definitely a tricky thing, and 
fortunately not used often. Also tricky is French, where in spite of 
using guillemets for quotes, and in many cases putting a narrow space 
between the guillemet and the following/preceding word, in contrast 
seems (AFAICT) to use a single curly quote for contractions (like 
d'état). It's getting hard to tell since various language websites break 
all sorts of rules on this, so looking at a website from whatever 
country is most unreliable. If you look at historical literature, it 
depends on when it was printed.

Greg