linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 00/53] Get rid of UTF-8 chars that can be mapped as ASCII

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Message-ID: <YJk8LMFViV7Z3Uu7@casper.infradead.org>
Date:   Mon, 10 May 2021 14:59:08 +0100
From:   Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>
To:     Edward Cree <ecree.xilinx@...il.com>
Cc:     Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@...nel.org>,
        David Woodhouse <dwmw2@...radead.org>,
        Linux Doc Mailing List <linux-doc@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>,
        alsa-devel@...a-project.org, coresight@...ts.linaro.org,
        dri-devel@...ts.freedesktop.org, intel-gfx@...ts.freedesktop.org,
        intel-wired-lan@...ts.osuosl.org, keyrings@...r.kernel.org,
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Subject: Re: [PATCH 00/53] Get rid of UTF-8 chars that can be mapped as ASCII

On Mon, May 10, 2021 at 02:16:16PM +0100, Edward Cree wrote:
> On 10/05/2021 12:55, Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote:
> > The main point on this series is to replace just the occurrences
> > where ASCII represents the symbol equally well
> 
> > 	- U+2014 ('—'): EM DASH
> Em dash is not the same thing as hyphen-minus, and the latter does not
>  serve 'equally well'.  People use em dashes because — even in
>  monospace fonts — they make text easier to read and comprehend, when
>  used correctly.
> I accept that some of the other distinctions — like en dashes — are
>  needlessly pedantic (though I don't doubt there is someone out there
>  who will gladly defend them with the same fervour with which I argue
>  for the em dash) and I wouldn't take the trouble to use them myself;
>  but I think there is a reasonable assumption that when someone goes
>  to the effort of using a Unicode punctuation mark that is semantic
>  (rather than merely typographical), they probably had a reason for
>  doing so.

I think you're overestimating the amount of care and typographical
knowledge that your average kernel developer has.  Most of these
UTF-8 characters come from latex conversions and really aren't
necessary (and are being used incorrectly).

You seem quite knowedgeable about the various differences.  Perhaps
you'd be willing to write a document for Documentation/doc-guide/
that provides guidance for when to use which kinds of horizontal
line?  https://www.punctuationmatters.com/hyphen-dash-n-dash-and-m-dash/
talks about it in the context of publications, but I think we need
something more suited to our needs for kernel documentation.