Quote:
Originally Posted by WillAdams
Absolutely incorrect terminology and (mis)usage of characters.
Straight / uni-directional single (apostrophe ') and double quote (") marks are a convention from typewriters where the limited character set forced the directional marks (‘’ and “”) into a single duplexed key --- they have since found usage in computer code as a way to indicate strings and various other conventions:
print "Hello World"
Primes and double primes which are used in mathematics to indicate various things and to indicate feet and inches (5′ 2″), or degrees and seconds of degrees are separate characters (which unfortunately don't appear in many fonts --- Hypatia Sans Pro and Arno Pro are two which come to mind).
Please, use the proper character in the proper context.
William
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I stand corrected, thank you. I knew that straight quotes are used in computer languages because I used to hand-code HTML, but the way I learned typography, straight single and double quotes were called "foot marks" and "inch marks." I was taught that it looked just as bad to use curly single and double quotes for notating height (as in your example 5’ 2” in the serif font I'm using) as it looked to use straight single and double quotes for apostrophes, quotations-within-quotations and quotation. But you have taught me something new, and it makes sense. Now I know to notate height thus: 5ʹ 2ʺ.
Forgive me for doubting you, but I searched the Internet to find corroboration for what you said, and I found this
helpful web page about common typographical errors. (Although I still don't see the difference between 98.6º and 98.6°. Well, okay, maybe the latter "correct" one looks smaller. Anyway…)