Re: Quotation marks: Using “” instead of ""

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

Wouter Bolsterlee wrote on 13/05/08 17:19:
> 
> 2008-05-13 klockan 16:19 skrev Christian Neumair:
>...
>> I hereby propose to establish a GNOME policy of using “...” for
>> quotations. Comments, objections?

There is a test case for this: Epiphany uses typographical quote marks
throughout its interface. (Bravo to the Epiphany developers.) So if this
was going to cause trouble, it would have done so by now. Has it?

> Why not single quotation marks: ‘ and ’ instead? Many people associate
> double quotes to verbatim speech, while this is almost never the case
> in user interfaces.

That people associate double quote marks with speech does not mean
single quotes will be more obvious for the things quoted in user interfaces.

Anyway, the answer to your question is that double quote marks are
easier to see than single ones, which is important at low resolutions
such as computer screens. Newspapers typically use double quotes for
much the same reason (small print on cheap paper), sometimes switching
to single quotes only for headlines where legibility is not an issue.

> I would also like to point out these sites:
> 
>   - The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks
>     http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/
> 
>   - The Gallery Of "Misused" Quotation Marks
>     http://www.juvalamu.com/qmarks/
> 
> ...since quotation marks are often used inappropriately.
>...

And in a similar vein, a site decrying the use of ugly Ascii quotes in
high-profile settings: <http://apostropheatrophy.com/>

Cheers
-- 
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/