771791 - 'Don’t load tabs until selected' should be 'Don't load tabs until selected'

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[Sebastian Hengst [:aryx] (needinfo me if it's about an intermittent or backout)]

In Preferences > Advanced > General, there is 'Don’t load tabs until selected', but it should be 'Don't load tabs until selected' - all other strings use ' instead of ’.

Comment 1

[Ekanan Ketunuti]

Attachment: patch

Replace punctuation apostrophe (’) by typewriter apostrophe (') in Restore Tabs on Demand string.

Comment 2

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

’ is typographically preferable as I understand it, so this seems backwards to me.

Comment 3

[Ekanan Ketunuti]

so this should be marked as won't fix?

Comment 4

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

We could re-purpose this bug for replacing ' with ’...

Comment 6

[rsx11m]

(In reply to Dão Gottwald [:dao] from comment #2)
> ’ is typographically preferable as I understand it

Can you expand on the rationale on why the UTF-8 apostrophe would be preferable over the plain ASCII version? I don't even know how to type it on my keyboard. :-)

I'm wondering if there are any implications for font issues when using it, in case the user has some exotic system font installed. You don't want to see an empty box in the chrome where an apostrophe should appear...

I'd suggest to play it safe and to take the patch as is, thus to avoid increasing the code complexity and possible dependencies without any significant reason.

Comment 7

[rsx11m]

(In reply to Dão Gottwald [:dao] from comment #4)
> We could re-purpose this bug for replacing ' with ’...

If you want to apply typographic rules accurately, you shouldn't stop at the apostrophe but you'd also have to expand that paradigm to opening and closing quotes (i.e., '“' and '”') and ligatures (like 'fi' for "fi" or 'fl' for "fl") to make them look "prettier" (similar to what LaTeX typesets by default).

Is that worth the effort?

Comment 8

[:aceman]

I'd think ligatures should be resolved on the font rendering layer, not in the source text. Otherwise it would open a can of worms.

Comment 9

[rsx11m]

...which isn't unambiguous either, since it's "float" but "briefly" (not "briefly") as those a two syllables separating the "-ly" suffix (which one can specify in LaTeX by using "brief\-ly" in the source).

Either way, you could also turn this suggestion around and say that on the font rendering level it could be determined if the "pretty" apostrophe exists in the respective font to be rendered, then the corresponding UTF-8 character substituted if desired as an alternative to hard-coding those in DTDs and property strings.

Comment 10

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

This bug isn't about ligatures, just like bug 373623 wasn't. Whether ' should be rendered as ’ seems like a discussion for a separate bug too.

Comment 11

[rsx11m]

Attachment: on Windows Classic desktop

Ok, so let's focus on the apostrophe issue. FWIW, back to my comment #6, the string in question looks rather ugly with my desktop settings. Using the Windows Classic desktop theme with font smoothing disabled isn't an unusual settings for users who can't stand the "glass" effect and who need sharp letters to aid reading. In this case, the UTF-8 apostrophe floats into the 't' next to it, which doesn't happen with the ASCII apostrophe. Thus, personally I'm opposed to using that version of the apostrophe.

It appears to me that this bug was mainly opened for reasons of consistency (i.e., single usage of the UTF-8 apostrophe), and there would be no harm done by simply going for it and correct that single occurrence per current policies. Then, if you want the UTF-8 apostrophe or other typographic beautifications, clone this bug for each of those to investigate whether that specific appearance should be applied (be it by hard-coding or as a rendering step, where the latter would certainly be preferable given that the user or some desktop/font heuristics can be used to enable or disable such effects). Either of those options wouldn't be impaired by just going with the patch as posted, thus keeping at least the current state consistent until a decision is made.

Comment 12

[rsx11m]

I was able to reproduce attachment 704846 [details] on another Windows 7 machine (with a different graphics card) and an XP machine, all with the Windows Classic desktop theme. Thus, my observation wasn't an isolated incident caused by a specific configuration.

Comment 13

[Ekanan Ketunuti]

The checkbox being hidden in bug 1257554.