Re: TeX ligatures in XeTeX/LuaTeX: ``who needs them''?

[Wolfgang Schuster <schuster.wolfgang@googlemail.com>]

On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 17:26:48 -0500 (EST)
Aditya Mahajan <adityam@umich.edu> wrote:

> On Sat, 8 Dec 2007, Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> 
> > just wondering: how many ConTeXt-ers depend on ligatures such as:
> >   '' (double quote) and '' (two single quotes) -> right double quote
> >  `` -> left double quote
> 
> In some old documents. In newer documents I use \quote and \quotation. 
> Then there are documents that need to move back and forth between latex 
> and context but for them I can easily define appropriate macros in latex.
> 
> >  ,, -> DOUBLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK

We should jeep them for old times sake although I prefer quote and
quotation in my document because this is more flexible (change with the
language and I can also change the quotation style).

> > or even more weird ones:
> >  !` -> inverted exclam
> >  ?` -> inverted question
> >  << -> LEFT POINTING GUILLEMET (never heard of that ligature)
> >  >> -> RIGHT POINTING GUILLEMET
> 
> I have never used them.

The two spain ligatures should vanish, I tried once to write [...]?`` in
one of my documents and hated this behaviour. The other two ligatures
for guillemets another odd things because I < in my document for every
< in my source not a replacement.

> > Some ligatures are handy indeed:
> >  -- -> endash
> >  --- -> emdash
> 
> I use them all the time. Even though the utf encoded values can work here, 
> my editor (vim) using fixed width fonts, so it is easy to miss the 
> difference between hypehn, endash, and emdash (in the markup). So, I would 
> prefer them to be present.

Keep them, they are to usefull. I could also agree to Aditya's
explanation.

> >  ' -> right single quote (I'm, isn't etc.)
> 
> I can automate the conversion of ' to the corresponding utf character 
> inside vim, so this is not really essential. However, IMO this should not 
> change.
> 
> Aditya

I nearly never need this in my documents but it is very usefull in I
don't want to select the right character. This is also on of the points
Word and Powerpoint users select the wrong character but TeX has
always the right character :-) 

Wolfgang
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