Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!rbutterworth From: rbutterworth@watmath.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.std.internat Subject: Re: ISO Latin-1 Character Set Message-ID: <4411@watmath.UUCP> Date: Wed, 14-Jan-87 12:34:18 EST Article-I.D.: watmath.4411 Posted: Wed Jan 14 12:34:18 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 15-Jan-87 05:59:14 EST References: <6@decvax.UUCP> Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 37 Xref: watmath comp.lang.c:687 comp.std.internat:70 According to old ascii tables the 096 character is defined as a grave accent. Some terminals and printers have begun displaying it as a left-quote (sometimes like the figure 6 and sometimes like an upside down 6 both with the tail pointing to the right). Judging by many of the net articles, this practice seems to be becoming quite popular. (On a standard terminal, the text appears to look more like ~~quote'' than what was intended though. It is quite ugly anyway.) I admit the left-quote usage is much more useful, but it would be nice if manufacturers adhered to the official standards. In article <6@decvax.UUCP>, minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow) writes: > The ISO Latin-1 character set (ISO DIS 8859/1) is identical to the Draft > Ansi standard (ANSI BSR X3.134.2) which is likely to be approved early > this year. > > 039 02/07 ' APOSTROPHE, RIGHT SINGLE-QUOTATION MARK > 096 06/00 ` GRAVE ACCENT, LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK > 180 11/04 '' ACUTE ACCENT Are these going to be the official definitions? I haven't heard any of the discussions that went into designing this standard, but what is here only seems to complicate the current mess. 039 as both apostrophe and right-quote is fine, since the two do look the same (at least in English). (Or 039 could even be a symmetric vertical stroke like the double-quote.) But what on earth is 096 supposed to look like? The existence of 180, the acute-accent implies that it should look like its mirror image, the grave-accent, yet the existence of 039, the right-quote, implies that it should look like its mirror image, the left-quote. If the standard is going to provide acute accents, it should also provide grave accents. If the standard is going to provide right-quotes, it should also provide left-quotes. How do they expect the same character to fill the two jobs? On any standard printer, we'll either get very ugly mismatched quotes, or get even uglier accents.