Apostrophes
Today on I Hate Computers
2021-03-29
Although there is a dedicated APOSTROPHE (U+0027) character, the one you should actually use is RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK (U+2019), but it gets worse …
On a Mac, if you press the key that suggests to enter a RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK, because it’s on the same key as the double quotation mark, you actually get an APOSTROPHE and you have to press OPT + SHIFT + ] to get the actual RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK. Except with some text editors, that try to be “smart” and replace an APOSTROPHE in a word like “couldn’t” with a RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK.
If you use multiple editors, you’re likely to end up with inconsistent apostrophes.
Oh, and on an iPad pressing the same key will give you a LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK (U+2018) which is the most wrong of the bunch.
Want a demonstration?
U+0027: '
U+2018: ‘
U+2019: ’
Depending on the font the difference ranges from almost invisible to really stark.
Serif fonts usually make it more obvious, so you might be surprised how a document looks and have a really hard time hunting down the mistakes in your mono space font editor when editing LaTeX that usually renders with serifs.
My workaround right now? I just type whatever and search-replace the wrong characters afterwards, which is an annoying chore.