origin of `notation'

origin of `notation'

[Buchs, Kevin]

Ok, dumb question to which I have been unable to find the answer and which is distracting me: 

In emacs documentation, what is the origin of using the accent grave (backtick) to introduce a quoted phrase, often a command, while using an apostrophe to terminate it.  Example: (info) Keys and Commands: 1st paragraph: "binding" is quoted as such, but 2nd paragraph, `next-line' is quoted that way. If someone who knows the answer will take the time to answer, I promise I will document it on the Emacs wiki. Does this extend beyond emacs? Beyond GNU & FSF?

Kevin Buchs   |  Senior Engineer  |  Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering - SPPDG
507-538-5459  |   buchs.kevin@mayo.edu  |  http://www.mayo.edu/sppdg
Mayo Clinic  |  200 1st St. SW  |  Rochester, MN 55905  

Re: origin of `notation'

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:22:54 -0600
> From: "Buchs, Kevin" <buchs.kevin@mayo.edu>
> 
> In emacs documentation, what is the origin of using the accent grave (backtick) to introduce a quoted phrase, often a command, while using an apostrophe to terminate it.  Example: (info) Keys and Commands: 1st paragraph: "binding" is quoted as such, but 2nd paragraph, `next-line' is quoted that way. If someone who knows the answer will take the time to answer, I promise I will document it on the Emacs wiki. Does this extend beyond emacs? Beyond GNU & FSF?

That's what Texinfo produces for symbols in programming languages,
like Lisp and C, in the on-line manual.  (In the printed manual,
there's no quotes, but the name of the symbol is typeset in monospace
typeface.)

Re: origin of `notation'

[Bob Proulx]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> Buchs, Kevin wrote:
> > In emacs documentation, what is the origin of using the accent
> > grave (backtick) to introduce a quoted phrase, often a command,
> > while using an apostrophe to terminate it.  Example: (info) Keys
> > and Commands: 1st paragraph: "binding" is quoted as such, but 2nd
> > paragraph, `next-line' is quoted that way. If someone who knows
> > the answer will take the time to answer, I promise I will document
> > it on the Emacs wiki. Does this extend beyond emacs? Beyond GNU &
> > FSF?
> 
> That's what Texinfo produces for symbols in programming languages,
> like Lisp and C, in the on-line manual.  (In the printed manual,
> there's no quotes, but the name of the symbol is typeset in monospace
> typeface.)

In some typical font long ago the two symbols ` and ' were symmetrical
mirror images of each other.  In those days the apostrophe was
rendered in an image that looked like the UTF-8 U+2019 symbol ’ and
the result was `...’ which looked quite normal.  I know some people
(hello Karl!) who continue to hack their current fonts to maintain
that effect.  Of course in today's fonts the apostrophe is most
typically rendered as a single vertical without any slant and the
original presentation effect is lost.

Bob

Re: origin of `notation'

[Buchs, Kevin]

Thanks, Bob Proulx and Eli Zaretskii for your responses to my question:
  > In emacs documentation, what is the origin of using the accent
  > grave (backtick) to introduce a quoted phrase, often a command,
  > while using an apostrophe to terminate it.  

I have recorded the information provided here:
   http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsDocumentationNotation

My follow-up question is why it is still used for online documentation when emacs can do such wonderful things with fonts in graphical mode. Why not just produce italics or color?

Kevin Buchs   |  Senior Engineer  |  Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering - SPPDG
507-538-5459  |   buchs.kevin@mayo.edu  |  http://www.mayo.edu/sppdg
Mayo Clinic  |  200 1st St. SW  |  Rochester, MN 55905  

Re: origin of `notation'

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:51:53 -0600
> From: "Buchs, Kevin" <buchs.kevin@mayo.edu>
> 
> My follow-up question is why it is still used for online documentation when emacs can do such wonderful things with fonts in graphical mode. Why not just produce italics or color?

Because no one wrote the code to do that.

Feel free to suggest a patch along these lines to Emacs developers.