[gerdesj]

So where do the top right to bottom left ticks come from? They are not on my keyboard.

Obviously I can trivially recreate any character with some effort but those left slanting ticks are not on many keyboards.

[rmccue]

The use of `` and '' comes from the typewriter days. You’ll see it particularly with professional authors who have been writing for print since then.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_accent#As_surrogate_of_a...

US QWERTY keyboards like the author is almost certainly using have the backtick above the Tab key, shared with ~, and it’s commonly used in programming.

[dylan604]

I blame Microsoft, as it was their software where I was first introduced to "smart" quotes using the extending characters/glyphs of fonts. I can also tell when importing someone's data that was copy/pasted from an Office type program with its auto"correcting" to smart typography.

[shakna]

The backtick? That's generally the non-shift character on the "tilde key", generally right under the escape key. It's on most physical keyboards.

[gerdesj]

Where do I find these things: “”

I use a en_GB keyboard and I have a very broad mind 8) I think I know where 66 and 99 come from.

[michaelmrose]

If you have an Apple keyboard it ought to be left of the letter z.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_and_American_keyboards