Re: text-quoting-style

[Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>]

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Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> The reason for its existence still holds.  Or is there some other
> mechanism which achieves the same thing?

I suggested the mechanism of setting the locale, which is needed anyway in an 
environment that can't display non-ASCII characters.  That is, curved quote 
characters would still be transformed to grave accent and apostrophe in the 
*Help* buffers, which I think was your main goal; it's just that the 
text-quoting-style variable wouldn't be needed.

Something like the attached change to the manual, say, with corresponding 
changes elsewhere.

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diff --git a/doc/lispref/help.texi b/doc/lispref/help.texi
index 44c09a2..fdd0a32 100644
--- a/doc/lispref/help.texi
+++ b/doc/lispref/help.texi
@@ -335,18 +335,17 @@ and @samp{\=\=} puts @samp{\=} into the output.
 @strong{Please note:} Each @samp{\} must be doubled when written in a
 string in Emacs Lisp.
 
-@defvar text-quoting-style
 @cindex curved quotes
 @cindex curly quotes
-The value of this variable specifies the style used to generate text
-quotes.  If the variable's value is @code{curve}, the style is
-@t{‘like this’} with curved single quotes.  If the value is
-@code{straight}, the style is @t{'like this'} with straight
-apostrophes.  If the value is @code{grave}, the style is @t{`like
-this'} with grave accent and apostrophe.  The default value @code{nil}
-acts like @code{curve} if curved single quotes are displayable, and
-like @code{grave} otherwise.
-@end defvar
+@cindex @env{LC_ALL} environment variable
+Docstrings can represent directed single quotes with
+either curved quotes (@t{‘} and @t{’}) or with grave accent and
+apostrophe (@t{`} and @t{'}).  These are transformed to curved single
+quotes if displayable, and to grave accent and apostrophe otherwise.
+Most modern displays can represent curved quotes with no trouble; for
+the exceptions, you can run Emacs in a locale that matches your
+display, e.g., by setting @env{LC_ALL} to @samp{C} in the environment.
+@xref{Locales}.
 
 @defun substitute-command-keys string
 This function scans @var{string} for the above special sequences and
diff --git a/doc/lispref/strings.texi b/doc/lispref/strings.texi
index 08e8e87..3705546 100644
--- a/doc/lispref/strings.texi
+++ b/doc/lispref/strings.texi
@@ -818,11 +818,12 @@ if any.
 @defun format-message string &rest objects
 @cindex curved quotes
 @cindex curly quotes
-This function acts like @code{format}, except it also converts any
-curved single quotes in @var{string} as per the value of
-@code{text-quoting-style}, and treats grave accent (@t{`}) and
-apostrophe (@t{'}) as if they were curved single quotes.  @xref{Keys
-in Documentation}.
+This function acts like @code{format}, except it also replaces grave
+accents and apostrophes (@t{`} and @t{'}) in @var{string} with curved
+quotes (@t{‘} and @t{’}) if curved quotes are displayable, and
+replaces curved quotes with grave accents and apostrophes if curved
+quotes are not displayable.  This extra replacement is similar to what
+@code{substitute-command-keys} does.  @xref{Keys in Documentation}.
 @end defun
 
 @cindex @samp{%} in format
@@ -923,8 +924,7 @@ specification is unusual in that it does not use a value.  For example,
   Any other format character results in an @samp{Invalid format
 operation} error.
 
-  Here are several examples, which assume the typical
-@code{text-quoting-style} settings:
+  Here are several examples, which assume curved quotes are displayable:
 
 @example
 @group