Re: Cookbook coments: flexlayout printable-page smartquotes

smartquotes: Unfortunetly I had to turn it off. The problem is that it 
replaces all quotes, while for instance 3.5" should not be replaced. 

--
2 possible solutions: write 3.5[="=] or (better) 3.5″ (assuming that 3.5" 
means 3.5 inches)

more generally: 6′ and 7″
--

Much bigger problem is that lines indented with one space often used to 
include source code snippets and other similiar information, and from my 
point of view it does not make any sense to process quotes in there. 

--
Depending on what else is in the line, you can again write 
  [=source code snippet=]
--

Also it might be useful to use n-dash when dash is between two digits; 
n-dash essentially is a minus sign. 

--
Well, what does one do about: "The 8am Wellington-Picton ferry has been 
cancelled. Southerly gales in Cook Strait are causing 15 metre swells."

While it could easily render [0-9]\s*- as an en dash, it may be better to let 
people write (say) `- (backtick minus) and have this render as – (the 
alternative is -- for en dash and --- for em dash, but most people write -- 
when they mean em dash, so I don't think that's a good idea)

Thus one would write: the meeting is from 1`-3 (en dash) but half-baked for a 
normal hyphen.

My understanding is that strictly, an en dash means 'to' so 1 en dash 3 means 1 
to 3, whereas 1 - 3 means 1 minus 3. 
--

Another suggestion -- if I am not 
mistaken angle quotes are used for quoted text within quoted text. If it 
is possible to automatically place angle quotes that would be great.
--
It already replaces << ... >> with left and right angle quote marks 
(&[lr]aquo;) -- the guillemet symbols. Are you suggesting it should also 
replace < ... > with &[lr]saquo; -- easily done.

I'd rather not have it second guess what conventions an author wants to follow; 
I'd rather follow the author's lead.

And where does it stop? ... could becomes &hellip; so the dots never break 
across a line, and so on.

Are there other "obvious" smart things it should do?


JR