Re: Simple high-ascii character encoding

Jukka K. Korpela:

>> You cannot write even English correctly using ASCII only. ASCII
>> lacks orthographically correct quotation marks (and apostrophe),
>> en and am dashes, and horizontal ellipsis, though the last one
>> is debatable.


Stan Brown sent:

> This claim does not become true no matter how often repeated.

Claiming that some of those things aren't true, no many how times
repeated, does NOT make it true.

> Aside from the question of whether _punctuation_ can properly be
> said to be part of a _language_ at all, there is no divine ordinance
> that says opening and closing quotes need to look different, or that
> apostrophes and single quotes need to look different.

Whatever they *look* like, apostrophes are not quote marks (neither are
they accents, as they're all-too-frequently abused for), and properly used
quote marks are not the same as what almost passes for quote marks in
ASCII (there are two separate opening and closing quote symbols, and ASCII
provides neither, certainly nothing that's opening quotes with a
corresponding something as closing quotes).

Anyone who's been taught to use the English language properly knows full
well that opening and closing quotes are two dissimilar symbols. Stylised
fonts are something else again, but standard punctuation marks do have
*proper* ways of being drawn (dots with tails going in particular
directions), even the letters have proper ways of being drawn. Anybody
who's *properly* taught children to write knows this.

> Indeed, a counter-example comes readily to mind: the King James
> bible, the standard English bible for centuries, was printed
> entirely without quote marks, en dashes, "am dashes", and ellipses.

That a document doesn't do something is no proof. It also doesn't have
the word computer in it, no various other parts of our current language.

> Perhaps, meaning no disrespect, you might yield just a tiny bit to a
> native speaker in your pronouncements about what is and is not
> correct English?

Maybe you ought to listen to some native speakers who assert that you're
wrong. Perhaps some who've been taught properly.

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