`Out Of The Loop’

I see backticks ( ` ) used quite frequently as an opening quotation mark online and in program output, as in “You named it `Carl’ “. Is this some kind of quiet leet development that people don’t talk about but just pick up, like slang?

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2 Responses to “`Out Of The Loop’”

  1. red Says:

    LaTeX uses this format, so it’s been around for a while specifically you quote something in LaTeX like “this”, with double quotes. I guess it’s an ascii way to distinguish beginning and end quotes without depending on rich text.

  2. red Says:

    Oh, bizarre. wordpress converted my quotes into smart quotes. So you know, it was two opening back ticks and two closing single quotes.

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