[racket] Scribble: how can I produce a straight quote within @racketfont?

I see your point. I thought of the `racketfont` function as not for
typesetting code, but just for wrapping around text to select the code
font without changing anything else. Forms like `racket`,
`racketblock`, `code`, and `codeblock` are intended for typesetting
code.

As we've established, though, `racketfont` does even the job of
selecting a font badly, and the documentation incorrectly suggests that
`racketfont` is good for code. I've fixed the documentation and added
`racketplainfont` as a non-strange variant of `racketfont`, though
still preserving decoding for consistency.

For what it's worth, see also the discussion at PR 14635. The design
choice to split "decode" from font-selection --- but still routinely
decode --- was a reaction to the Tex design that tangles font selection
with something like decoding (which creates trouble for Scribble trying
to use Latex as a back end) while trying to keep things simple and
consistent. I still think that `tt` would be right if it simply changed
the font while still decoding, but there should be some other and more
prominent function that is the inline variant of `verbatim`.

Meanwhile, in reaction to your tex.stackexchange.com post, I've
repaired the Latex back-end to render plain quote and backquote as
plain quote and backquote.


At Mon, 14 Jul 2014 00:06:01 -0700, Matthew Butterick wrote:
> Thank you, that works.
> 
> FWIW I'm always tripped up by the fact that the `racket___font` functions 
> decode their arguments by default. IMHO if text is to be formatted to look like 
> code, that ought to imply literal handling of characters.
> 
> I've noticed a variant of this problem in the TeX typesetting of both Dybvig's 
> Scheme book and SICP (see http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/178779).
> 
> 
> On Jul 13, 2014, at 10:10 PM, Matthew Flatt <mflatt at cs.utah.edu> wrote:
> 
> > I would have suggested the `literal` pattern, but I see that
> > `racketfont` and `tt` (the former defined using the latter) are weird
> > and misdocumented: they apply the 'tt style only to string arguments,
> > and not uniformly to all given content.
> > 
> > I think that you want
> > 
> > (define (racketfont* . args)
> >   (element 'tt args))
> > 
> > This `racketfont*` refrains from calling `decode-content`, which is the
> > step that converts quotes to curly quotes.
> > 
> > At Sun, 13 Jul 2014 11:11:09 -0700, Matthew Butterick wrote:
> >> In Scribble, the @racketfont tag decodes its content, so this markup:
> >> 
> >>> @racketfont{◊(select 'h1 doc)}
> >> 
> >> Will render as this (with a curly quote in front of h1):
> >> 
> >>> ◊(select ’h1 doc)
> >> 
> >> 
> >> But I want this (straight quote, not curly)
> >> 
> >>> ◊(select 'h1 doc)
> >> 
> >> 
> >> @verbatim is not the answer, because it will create a line break.
> >> 
> >> @literal seems like it should be the answer:
> >> 
> >>> @racketfont{◊(select @literal{'}h1 doc)}
> >> 
> >> But oddly, even though @literal is nested inside @racketfont, the resulting 
> >> markup doesn't reflect this, and renders as if the Scribble had been written 
> >> this way:
> >> 
> >>> @racketfont{◊(select} @literal{'}@racketfont{h1 doc)}
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Meaning, the @literal content adopts the formatting of the enclosing block, 
> not 
> >> the @racketfont span.
> >> 
> >> Hence the question: how can I force a literal character within @racketfont 
> that 
> >> actually adopts the formatting of @racketfont.
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> 
> 
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