Talk:Hajo Ortil

I had to make some adjustments to your chances in order to make it flow better. I removed the reference to the presentation and the girl as it would not be understood by someone who has not read the Brongersma article on Ortil. By the way, home come you're using those old fashioned reversed guillemets? I take it that you are from Switzerland but they are not used in English. Kes 14:25, 31 July 2006 (EST)

1. Ortil was not born in Bremen.
2. Forssmann/de Jong, Detailtypographie, p. 296, state that »German guillemets« are sometimes used in English typography and »more practical«. « French guillemets » are quite different !

Peter 01:40, 1 August 2006 (EST)

Guillemets are what I would describe as "exceedingly rare" in English typography. You do not specify what you mean by "more practical" (compared to what?) and I do not have a copy of Detailtypographie. For English BoyWiki I would expect straight quotes in English-language articles, and perhaps „deutsche Anführungszeichen‟ within a block of quoted German text. Do you have a reference for the birthplace of Ortil? It would be nice to be able to pin down a location. --Hínandil 02:55, 1 August 2006 (EST)

I will look up Ortil's place of birth when I visit the University library (it's in the printed National Bibliography, GV, supposedly).

Regarding quotation marks, first of all I have the French « » on my keyboard, but not German „ ‟ or English “ ” ones, for which I have to consult the Unicode standard. (I generally write in both languages with LaTeX, where it is simpler.)

In German quality typography, however, German quotation marks are rather deprecated because they make unruly edges and generally white spots that violate the typographer's conscience. This is the reason the former are called more practical by Forssmann/de Jong.—Peter 12:11, 1 August 2006 (EST)

Fair enough. I only use straight quotes (U+0022) in English here. I let OpenOffice.org handle fancy English and German quotes. I write German wth the „ and ‟ but I typically stick with the straight quotes online as well. The point I wanted to make was--while I appreciate your enthusiasm for proper typography and enjoy this little conversation--many English-only speaking readers may not recognize guillemets, and straight quotes are not only simpler (not if you have guillemots on your keyboard, I suppose), but more than sufficient. --Hínandil 13:16, 1 August 2006 (EST)