[OS X Emacs] Puzzle about quotes in LaTeX mode

[Stephen Anderson]

This question is probably not specific to Aquamacs-emacs, but I’m hoping someone here can help.

Recently, and without warning, when I am typing in an Aquamacs buffer in LaTeX mode, I find that the “ key inserts “\og “ (for open quote) and “\fg{}” (for close quote), instead of “``” and “‘’” respectively. Running LaTeX on the file yields the correct open and close quote characters, but I find these commands distracting, and also they don’t trigger the syntax coloring (in Aquamacs) appropriate to quoted material. Where does this behavior come from? Just a couple of weeks ago, working on the same files, the behavior was as it should be. I don’t know of anything I could have done to change it…

A buffer in question shows “(LaTeX/FPS BCite Ref Abbrev Fill)" in the mode line. ^H-k says that

> " runs the command TeX-insert-quote (found in LaTeX-mode-map), which
> is an interactive compiled Lisp function in ‘tex.el’.
> 
> It is bound to ".
> 
> (TeX-insert-quote FORCE)
> 
> Insert the appropriate quotation marks for TeX.
> Inserts the value of ‘TeX-open-quote’ (normally ‘‘) or ‘TeX-close-quote’
> (normally ’’) depending on the context.  If ‘TeX-quote-after-quote’
> is non-nil, this insertion works only after ".
> With prefix argument FORCE, always inserts " characters.

Similarly,

> TeX-open-quote is a variable defined in ‘tex.el’.
> Its value is "``"
> 
> Documentation:
> String inserted by typing M-x TeX-insert-quote to open a quotation.
> 
> You can customize this variable.

But I haven’t customized it, and its state is shown as “Standard.” 

I will be very grateful for any enlightenment….

-- 

Steve Anderson