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by 082349872349872 678 days ago
Forth almost has you covered on both points: `52cards`, `1+`, and `0` would all first be looked up in the dictionary, and only if they had not been defined would an integer conversion be attempted, and `s" ` is in principle distinct from the trailing `"`.

[unicode does have various quotation-mark pairs, but note which is the opener can be natural-language dependent: eg « french » vs »magazine german«]

1 comments

There is a classic English-language solution in the so called ⁶⁶round quotes⁹⁹, like the accursed SmartQuotes MS Word feature inflicts. There is more than one pair, and they look visually indistinct in some situations so I used superscript numbers above, rather than “this”.

I like the «guillemot» (French) solution, and also the similar ‹chevrons›. Like all similar holy wars there are issues with familiarity and input methods etc. and I don't think it will be solved through mere elegance.

Honorable mention to the classic ``unix quotes'' that are still seen in typesetting software.