[ruby-talk:03027] Re: mismatched quotes

Oops, previous post vanished somehow.

Thanks, Reuben, for your comments.

Well, I wish I knew where to find some absolutely
authoritative sources on these matters.

I realize that people are going to type however they
want. As I said, I'm not trying to get anyone to change.

But historically I find this very interesting.

For example, Eric S. Raymond in the Jargon File makes
the claim that the use of MATCHED quotes is a hackish
tradition or innovation, and implies that the use of
UNMATCHED quotes (such as Steven complains about)
are the norm.

He says that the use of matched quotes comes from the
habitual use of programming languages which use them,
and that they are NOT standard in everyday use. I claim 
the opposite: That normal matched quotes showed up in 
computer languages because they were the norm, and 
that the unmatched quotes are the more recent (and 
non-standard) innovation.

I have the dubious honor of having used typewriters since 
I was 7, and never having seen a computer till 1977 or so 
(when I was 16).

I never saw the mismatched quotes until (I guess) the mid-80s,
and I considered it to be an oddball computer nerd habit.

In fact, I thought it had to do with some software mis-handling
certain quoted strings. This was the old days, after all.

I have always been aware that in typeset books, left and right
single quotes are different. But I have also always been aware 
that typing and typesetting are different things.Once the backtick
showed up on computer keyboards, it would never have occurred
to me to co-opt it for use as a left single quote, because: 1) On
90% of the keyboards/displays (then and now?) they don't appear
symmetrical; 2) They obviously don't correspond to each other,
since they are far apart on the keyboard, unlike {}[]()<>; 3) I have
never heard of anyone being taught to use them that way; 4) if they
had been adding a left single-quote, they would have added a left
double-quote also (and changed the appearance of the standard
quotes into right-handed ones!); and 5) the majority of the world 
still does it the other way (just ask Steven Apter, who even in the
year 2000, has obviously reached adulthood without ever seeing 
this construct before).

Some questions I have are:

1. When was the backtick added, and for what purpose? I always
assumed it was intended as some kind of accent mark.
2. What do older (60's /70's) typing books say?
3. What do the newer typing books say?
4. Did this practice possibly originate with TeX?
5. What do various style guides say? 

If anyone chooses to comment on these, I encourage the use 
of email.

But, as I said before, Ruby is more important.

ObRuby question: OK, if 'class' can be used as a method name, what 
exactly are the limitations on the usage of keywords? So far I have
tried several things that worked unexpectedly. (I don't have the source
with me.)

You're welcome to quote from the bowels of the parser for others' benefit,
but I don't understand lex or yacc or parsers in general (other than the
handmade recursive-descent parsers I've worked with before).

Hal