Re: https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/manual/m4.html - UPDATE

[Eric Blake]

On 02/11/2018 12:20 PM, Howard Johnson wrote:
OOPs.  Now I see that in fact the leading quote is a back tick (not a 
single tick), while the trailing quote is a single tick.  Strange.


Might be good to spell this uncommon usage out more clearly in 
https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/manual/m4.html#Quoted-strings


i.e. say:

     A quoted string is a sequence of characters surrounded by quote 
strings, defaulting to ‘`’ (back tick) and ‘'’ (single quote), where the 
nested begin and end quotes within the string are balanced. The value of 
a string token is the text, with one level of quotes stripped off.


rather than just:

     A quoted string is a sequence of characters surrounded by quote 
strings, defaulting to ‘`’ and ‘'’, where the nested begin and end 
quotes within the string are balanced. The value of a string token is 
the text, with one level of quotes stripped off.


Sure, we can apply that patch (patches are easier to read in diff 
format, but it looks like all you did was add the strings "(back tick)" 
and "(single quote)" in the right places).


--
Eric Blake, Principal Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc.   +1-919-301-3266
Virtualization:  qemu.org | libvirt.org

Re: https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/manual/m4.html

[Eric Blake]

On 02/11/2018 12:09 PM, Howard Johnson wrote:

Hi,

In the m4 documentation web page, for example at 
https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/manual/m4.html#Comments 
, the character used for an opening single quote 
displays incorrectly.  Here is a snapshot:







Your snapshot did not render correctly in plain text.




I'm pretty sure what is meant is that the same character is used both 
before and after *quoted text* above. 


No, that is NOT what is meant.

But what appears is a slanted 
tick and then a straight tick.


Yes, that is correct.



I think this should read:

    $m4

    'quoted text' # 'commented text'


Wrong.

The default m4 quoting strings are back-tick (`, ASCII 96) for opening 
quote, and single-quote (', ASCII 39) for closing quote.  Yes, they are 
asymmetrical, and that is intentional.



    ...


If I disable the style sheet I still see them wrong, so it's not a css 
thing:




Also this is not dependent on browser, i.e. Firefox and Chrome both 
display this the same.


Good - because that's what they are supposed to display.

--
Eric Blake, Principal Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc.   +1-919-301-3266
Virtualization:  qemu.org | libvirt.org

re: https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/manual/m4.html - UPDATE

[Howard Johnson]

OOPs.  Now I see that in fact the leading quote is a back tick (not a 
single tick), while the trailing quote is a single tick.  Strange.


Might be good to spell this uncommon usage out more clearly in 
https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/manual/m4.html#Quoted-strings


i.e. say:

    A quoted string is a sequence of characters surrounded by quote 
strings, defaulting to ‘`’ (back tick) and ‘'’ (single quote), where the 
nested begin and end quotes within the string are balanced. The value of 
a string token is the text, with one level of quotes stripped off.


rather than just:

    A quoted string is a sequence of characters surrounded by quote 
strings, defaulting to ‘`’ and ‘'’, where the nested begin and end 
quotes within the string are balanced. The value of a string token is 
the text, with one level of quotes stripped off.

re: https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/manual/m4.html

[Howard Johnson]

Hi,

In the m4 documentation web page, for example at 
https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/manual/m4.html#Comments 
, the character used for an opening single quote 
displays incorrectly.  Here is a snapshot:







I'm pretty sure what is meant is that the same character is used both 
before and after *quoted text* above.  But what appears is a slanted 
tick and then a straight tick.


I think this should read:

   $m4

   'quoted text' # 'commented text'
   ...


If I disable the style sheet I still see them wrong, so it's not a css 
thing:




Also this is not dependent on browser, i.e. Firefox and Chrome both 
display this the same.