Double Low Quotation Marks

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GregWills
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Double Low Quotation Marks

Post by GregWills » Fri Sep 21, 2018 7:05 am

Hello all

I am translating a version of a program I have written into German. All was going well until I needed to use the ‘double low quotation mark’ („). It looks fine on the desktop build, however when I test it in a browser, the „ takes up probably at least two line heights and looks like it is on steroids!! I’ve tried different basic fonts, and all with the same result.

I’m using just a text field.

Any suggestions on how to prevent this?

Regards

Greg

richmond62
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Re: Double Low Quotation Marks

Post by richmond62 » Fri Sep 21, 2018 8:18 am

Those low double quotes are the bane of my life as they are used in Bulgarian, and once someone has started using them in an Office document, every time, during translation, when I try to use a high double quotation mark ("), LibreOffice bungs in a „.

They are "kept" at Unicode address 0x201E (Decimal 8222).
when I test it in a browser
What does "it" refer to?

Are you testing a document composed in a LiveCode text field as exported HTML?

GregWills
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Re: Double Low Quotation Marks

Post by GregWills » Fri Sep 21, 2018 9:10 am

Hi Richmond62

Thanks for you response.

I'm using 'it', the double low quotation mark, in a text box within the program to be used in a HTML5 build. The double low appears as it should do while I'm creating the program, but when viewed in HTML5 build, it takes on a different personality!!!

I'm not a German speaker (therefore this will probably sound ignorant), but is there another character that can be used as an alternative (if there is no solution)?

Cheers

Greg

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Re: Double Low Quotation Marks

Post by richmond62 » Fri Sep 21, 2018 6:34 pm

A bit of initiative might have led you here:

https://azuliadesigns.com/html-characte ... e-symbols/

I don't know what operating system you are using LiveCode on (and, theoretically at least, I shouldn't have to care) . . .

I just set up a stack with one field and a button containing this secript:

Code: Select all

on mouseUp
   put "This " & numToCodePoint(8222) & " can be a pain in the bum." into fld "ff"
end mouseUp
and got this:
pain1.png
(no huge surprises there)

and then I ran off an HTML "thing" from that stack:
pain2.png
pain2.png (8.59 KiB) Viewed 7734 times
which is horrible:
HTML555555555.png
HTML555555555.png (3.35 KiB) Viewed 7734 times

richmond62
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Re: Double Low Quotation Marks

Post by richmond62 » Fri Sep 21, 2018 6:53 pm

Mucking around in the HTML5 folder LiveCode spat out I came across a font called 'DroidSansFallback.ttf',
so I opened it up on Fontforge and found that Unicode address 0x201E is empty!

The horrible rectangle is the standard "glyph missing" symbol:
pain3.png
pain3.png (26.01 KiB) Viewed 7732 times
Personally, were I really obsessed with the Lower Double Quotes symbol I'd hack DroidSansFallback.ttf
with Fontforge by inserting that symbol:

https://fontforge.github.io/en-US/

The LiveCode people need to be 'kicked' in the nicest possible way as that DroidSansFallback.ttf is, obviously, not fit for purpose.

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Re: Double Low Quotation Marks

Post by [-hh] » Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:49 pm

Set for your text field a font that displays the lower quote and add that font to the standalone (standalone settings), most "full" UTF-8 fonts will do.

Though you can't type the lower quote into a field because the optionKey is not supported in HTML5 standalones. You have to use an input button for that and probably other "option-chars".

By the way, most germans use lower quotes at most when handwriting. The fast internet world has 'killed' these. I find it to be comfortable.
shiftLock happens

GregWills
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Re: Double Low Quotation Marks

Post by GregWills » Sat Sep 22, 2018 1:54 am

Thank you Richmond62 for your comments and time to explore this further. I hadn’t realised what I had stumbled on :-)

-hh, if regular quotation marks are considered acceptable, then I will check with my translator to see if she is OK with using these as they are used in only one occasion.

Cheers

Greg
Last edited by GregWills on Sun Sep 23, 2018 1:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

richmond62
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Re: Double Low Quotation Marks

Post by richmond62 » Sat Sep 22, 2018 9:08 am

The idea behind a 'fallback' font is that it should supply ALL glyphs in case an end-user
does not have fonts containing glyphs required by a piece of software installed on
their machine.

Reading the name of the LiveCode HTML5 WRONGLY there's a clue as to why it doesn't "cut the mustard":

Droid sans Fallback

= Droid without fallback glyphs. 8)

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Re: Double Low Quotation Marks

Post by jacque » Sat Sep 22, 2018 6:26 pm

Droid Sans was the default system font for years (which is why LC chose it) but was changed to Roboto a few versions back. Both are installed in Android OS by default. You might check Roboto to see if it contains the missing character.
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