plain output, smart punctuation, and ascii

plain output, smart punctuation, and ascii

[Joseph Reagle]

I've noticed that when outputing to "plain," smart punctuation is used (including <0xa0> for non-breaking spaces). This seems counter to the docs and `--list-extensions=plain`.

And when I use `--to=plain --ascii`, I get HTML character encodings for the smart punctuation (e.g., &nbsp;).

This isn't correct behavior, is it?
  

Re: plain output, smart punctuation, and ascii

[John MacFarlane]

Joseph Reagle <joseph.2011-T1oY19WcHSwdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org> writes:

> I've noticed that when outputing to "plain," smart punctuation is used (including <0xa0> for non-breaking spaces). This seems counter to the docs and `--list-extensions=plain`.

Remember, when the smart extension is applied to a *writer*, it
means that straight quotes will be used.  (The idea is that
you're producing output that would be interpreted by something
with 'smart' support.)  When you disable smart, curly quotes
are used.  It's a bit counterintuitive but it makes sense when
you think about it.  (There's a recent thread on this list about
it.)

You can use `-t plain+smart` if you don't want this.

Re: plain output, smart punctuation, and ascii

[Joseph Reagle]

On 22-01-07 17:40, John MacFarlane wrote:
> Remember, when the smart extension is applied to a *writer*, it
> means that straight quotes will be used.

Ah, thank you. I had read the documentation [1] but hadn't understood this. First, because "plain" isn't even listed as a possible output format, I wondered if that means there should be no change at all? Perhaps we should specify this is true of all output format, or all output text formats? And you do have the warning:

> Note: If you are writing Markdown, then the smart extension has the reverse effect: what would have been curly quotes comes out straight.

But this seemed the opposite of what you say above. In any case, I think specificity would help, such as saying "to=...+smart yields straight punctuation."

[1]: https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#extension-smart

   (The idea is that
> you're producing output that would be interpreted by something
> with 'smart' support.)  When you disable smart, curly quotes
> are used.  It's a bit counterintuitive but it makes sense when
> you think about it.  (There's a recent thread on this list about
> it.)
> 
> You can use `-t plain+smart` if you don't want this.
> 

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