Re: makeinfo should quote 'like this' instead of `like this'

[Per Bothner]

On 01/24/2012 03:01 PM, Karl Berry wrote:
>      A better alternative might be for makeinfo to create info files
>      containing the utf-8 directed quotes,
>
> If the user says to use UTF-8, that happens now.  We certainly don't
> want to use UTF-8 quotes in otherwise 7-bit-ASCII Info/plaintext output.

Info isn't "plaintext" - it's a special format that doesn't make sense
to display except by a program that understands the format.  That program
could easily convert UTF-8 quotes to plains ASCII quotes, depending on
the locale (or info command-line flags, or a combination).

>      [Most of you know my opinion in this matter: info as a *file* format
>      should be killed dead and replaced by some variant of [X]HTML.
>
> For that to happen, Emacs has to stop reading Info files and start
> reading the XML output.  I am not aware of anyone working on that, but
> then, I probably wouldn't be.  Probably rms would have to retire before
> any such change has a prospect of succeeding :).

I guess rms could be convinced if the user interface remained more-or-less
the same for both stand-alone info and emacs info mode.  I.e. same 
navigation
model, keymaps, search, etc.  But adding fonts, embedded 
pictures/diagram, Unicode,
proper quotes,  (at least within Emacs), automatic line re-flow etc etc.

But of course as long as no-body wants to do the work (and I'm certainly
not volunteering) GNU documentation will remain stuck in the 80's.
--
        --Per Bothner
address@hidden   http://per.bothner.com/