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From: eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Troff comments (was: Awf: Henry's Amazingly Workable Formatter)
Message-ID: <1990Nov27.024600.16546@twinsun.com>
Date: 27 Nov 90 02:46:00 GMT
References: <1990Nov15.170711.6778@zoo.toronto.edu> <10416@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <1990Nov17.052158.10704@sq.sq.com> <1990Nov21.183156.21873@sq.sq.com>
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msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes about using ''' to start troff comments:

    Not to mention the mess that would happen if someone decided that '' was a
    good name for a temporary macro!

I often use `` and '' to name strings for open-double-quote and
close-double-quote.  For example,

	\*(``Quite!\*('' he said.

is more readable than -me's

	\*(lqQuite!\*(rq he said.

Unfortunately,

	''' This is a comment.

ruins this, because traditional troff uses the same name space for both macros
and strings, and the above line will interpolate a double close quote.  This is
another reason to stick with the less glamorous

	.\" This is a comment.