Be Excellent To Each Other

Why is that some people use the " ` " apostrophe as opposed to the proper " ' " one? Are they retarded? I'm referring to the one that occurs when you press the button above TAB on a regular keyboard.

This is definitely a 'bits and bobs' subject.

I disagree.

In some language set-ups, the 'normal' apostrophe ends up looking like the one you mentioned. That said, if you're being truly pedantic, you'd have asked why people don't use proper apostrophes, like this one: ’.

I disagree with your disagreement.

I concur with your disagreement to his disagreement, I disagree with his disagreement, and I concur with the original source of the disagreement.

I've noticed this in things that have been typed on Macs, but I've just had a look at a Mac keyboard and it's got both types in easy reach, so I'm none the wiser.

My head `ASPLODE`!

Well, as far as I know you certainly can't code with `, so in my opinion ' wins.

Technically, I don't think that '`' is even an apostrophe. Can anyone shed any light on what exactly it is?

It's just a bit of dust on your monitor. Don't worry about it.

You can code with `, but as it's a backtick it generally just executes whatever follows it as a system command.

Or delineates field names and table names in an SQL query.

</geek>

` is the greater than operator in befunge.


Observe my research!

http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?f=2 ... apostrophe

I think it's a single quote.

I think it's a hangover from typewriters. They had a mark on that top left key which also served as apostrophe, and I noticed my mum used it as apostrophe for a long time after she got a computer. The point was that you could use it in conjunction with another character to make an accent, so it's spectacularly pointless on a computer where you can't overtype.

It could well be that everyone designing computer keyboards just assumed that someone somewhere had a valid use for it, when in fact they don't.

Eradicate it, I say.

It is that. It's also a quotation mark. Mr. Grannell did a biggun. They come in pairs.

SQL, yo.

[edit]Like what GazChap said.

Not in an queries of mine, dagnamit.

You kids get off my LAN...

I remember when this was all just text fields...

This is what my brain is now doing:

10 print "Hey (hey)! You (you)! Get offa my LAN!"
20 goto 10

I don't even remember what song that's from, never mind any more of the (real) lyrics.

Rolling Stones, Get Off Of My Cloud. (or get offa my lawn)

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rolling+st ... 18086.html

Billy Ocean - Get Out Of My Dreams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrkKwjCnIpY

WRONG!
` is quite important in bash shell scripting, as is " and '


edit: I always post to late to look smarty-pant`s smart

As late posting goes, 36 hours has to be near the world record

Maybe their finger slips every time.

..or they're just retarded.

It's a hell of a slip!




Unless it's a giant goose typing, natch.

Why do people put apostrophes in places where they shouldn't be?

eg. apostrophe's

I believe the one in the topic title is ironic, given that it's a backtick.

Non SQL-FTFY.

But it isn't a single quote, surely. An apostrophe is a single quote, what with it (') being half a double quote ("). A backtick looks nothing like either (`).

Did you have a look at the article I linked to, saying "It's a single-quote"? It's different than an apostrophe, but common usage of them is the same.

why do ppl typ liek this!?

But that character isn't what that page describes. Indeed, charmap tells us that most character sets actually call ` a grave accent.

I agree with Craster. To a Unix programmer it's a backtick and to a typographer it's a grave accent; to a LaTeX author it's open single quote (and indeed two of them is open double quote), and to a MySQL user it's an optional delimiter on table and column names[1]. It's not an apostrophe ever though.

[1] I think this may be peculiar to MySQL and not a general SQL thing; I've never come across it in SQL Server, where you use square brackets instead, or Oracle. Can anyone confirm or deny that?

That's one of its possible uses.

But the page you link to shows what most people see as a text quote character, the one that looks a bit like a 6. The key in the top left looks NOTHING like that whatsoever! It's just a diagonal line, slightly thicker at the top!

And, auto text-recognition things like outlook will recognise ' as a single quote, but not `

See attached - outlook has converted the ' symbols into a matching pair of single quotes, but hasn't touched the backticks.

Avril Lavingngngngnge, innit?

No. As mentioned by kalmar, it's almost certainly the rolling stones ...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wqADEqBJZvU

Nah. It's the boyfriend song.

But that does not contain the lyric "get off of my...". Just "Hey... You..."

It is the Stones. Trufact.

From the album, "The Best D**n Thing".