quotation-marks.md

The translation files checker and syncing tool

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Quotation Marks

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  • Quotation Marks
    • Summary
    • Description
    • Configuration file
      • Important notes
      • Example

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Summary

• Check ID: QuotationMarks
• Checks base file: YES
• Checks translations: YES

Description

QuotationMarks ensures all quotation marks are unpaired.

Matching quotation marks is tricky because in some languages there's a single character that is used as both the opening and closing quotation mark (mainly "). This makes QuotationMarks unable to properly understand the context in the case of the use of subsequent marks of the same type, i.e., three " in a row: """ as it cannot determine if the 2nd one closes the quotation opened by the first one, or maybe the first is closed by the third and the 2nd is just missing its closing mark and is misplaced. Therefore, for the subsequent marks of the same type, it's always assumed that there's no quotation nesting. For example, for four " in a row """", it is assumed the 1st is the opening marker, the 2nd closes the 1st, and the 4th closes the 3rd.

Things also become more complicated if you want to mix the quotation marks and use apostrophes too. For example, "'"' (double quotes and apostrophes) will be marked as incorrect as you open ' apostrophe-marked quote before the double quote is closed. This may be problematic in some languages that use apostrophes as part of the sentence, i.e., It's "me". This is currently sufficient to fool QuotationMarks as it will complain about the unclosed apostrophe-marked quotation.

Temporary workarounds:

• Try to avoid using apostrophes as quotation marks (change QuotationMarks config to not handle them) if you need them in your sentences.
• Create a QuotationMarks configuration per language so, i.e., apostrophes are ignored in English, but checked in, i.e., Polish which does not use them as part of sentences.

Configuration File

Key	Type	Description	Defaults
comments	Boolean	If true, will scan translations and comments; when false, will skip comments.	true
chars	List of strings	List of quotation marks	[ "\"", "`" ]

Notes

IMPORTANT: We do NOT support apostrophes, because in some languages, i.e., in English, it can be used in a sentence: "Dogs' food".

Example

[trans-tool]
version = 1

[QuotationMarks]
comments = false
# Do NOT use apostrophe character for languages like English
chars = [ "`" ]