Message-Id: <9302041034.AA23554@sc.zib-berlin.dbp.de>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
In-Reply-To:  Your message of Thu,
              04 Feb 93 10:24:27 +0100. <"swan.cl.ca.628:04.
Date:         Thu, 4 Feb 93 10:30:38 +0000
From: Robin Fairbairns <Robin.Fairbairns@CL.CAM.AC.UK>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
To: Multiple Recipients of <LATEX-L@vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de>
Subject:      Re: document classes & numbering systems
Status: R


|> Don Hosek writes:
|>  > changing the \documentstyle cannot do everything for us. It won't
|>  > change a text which is written using the US style of
|>  >   ``this.''
|>  > to Viking Penguin's house requirement of
|>  >   `this'.
|>  > (note change in quotes and movement of period). Or consider the
|>  > fact that grammatical statements which make sense with one
|>
|> For Norwegian typesetting, I once hacked a virtual font that gave << and
|> >> in response to `` and ''. This gave the user the benefit of not having
|> to alter his accustomed LaTeX writing style but still achieving correct
|> typography, given the context.
|>
|> Creating virtual fonts that give ` and ' in response to `` and '' is no
|> harder, likewise creating a virtual font that gives .' as response to ''.
|> It's just a matter of hacking the proper ligatures into the font.

This misses the point (whose enormity perhaps even Don misses).

It is perfectly correct (British) English to write

  He said ``I've finished the job.'' and walked out of the room.

Since there is a full sentence quoted.  The period (or full stop as we
call it) moves out of the quote if it's the sentence _containing_ the
quote that's being terminated.  The same is true of parentheses - an
entire sentence parenthesised keeps its full stop within the
parenthesis, while a parenthesised note at the end of a sentence
doesn't have a full stop inside.  This is not really a problem with
the sort of technical typesetting that started this thread, but it's a
problem none the less.

I suspect that dealing with that particular problem by virtual fonts
is the same sort of job, though probably not as difficult, as dealing
with British<->American English spelling.

Robin
--
Robin (Keep Radio 3 != Classic FM) Fairbairns       rf@cl.cam.ac.uk
U of Cambridge Computer Lab, Pembroke St, Cambridge  CB2 3QG, UK