> Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2014 00:15:20 GMT > From: [email protected] (Karl Berry) > Cc: [email protected] > > In my experience, the problem is not specific to Info and not specific > to quotes. If I run cat or more or ... on a UTF-8 file in a non-UTF-8 > terminal, characters are dropped and the result beyond 7-bit ASCII is > garbled.
In this context, is pretty much specific to quotes, because those are used a lot in any Texinfo manual, for @code, @samp, @env, @file, @command, and whatnot, and also for quoted text. Using Unicode characters there just because @documentencoding of utf-8 was specified makes any manual illegible in Info, unless your terminal happens to support Unicode characters. > As for controlling the output of quotes by makeinfo, an option could be > invented, but I am not inclined to change the default behavior so I'm > not convinced it has much utility. It was never the default behavior of @documentencoding to affect the quotes, until Texinfo 5. The encoding and the quotes should be controlled by separate settings/options. > We changed it in the first place because of vociferous complaints > about getting ASCII quotes even with @documentencoding UTF-8. Well, you now have vociferous complaints to the contrary. > And after all, there is some logic to using UTF-8 quotes when the > document says it wants UTF-8. It's no different in principle than > accented letters. It _is_ different, because in an otherwise English manual, having Unicode quotes makes the manual unreadable. By contrast, having just a few words, mostly names of people, with Unicode characters is just a minor nuisance for those whose terminal is not UTF-8. > At any rate, the best answer, IMHO, not requiring any changes to any > programs, is simply not to use @documentencoding UTF-8 unless one > actually needs it, which should be never in English-language manuals. That doesn't stand the test of time, see the history of this in the Emacs manuals. We might as well accept the reality.
