[OS X TeX] overview of what TeX is producing

[Jason Davies]

>That is something I have been wondering about. According to the
>American way, one a combination of quoting and a period comes out like
>this:
>
>It was a matter of `live and let live.'
>
>While the IMO more logical way would be
>
>It was a matter of `live and let live'.
>
>I find the latter more logical because the quote is a phrase *inside*
>the sentence (a unit as it were) and the dot is the final part of the
>sentence.


the usual principle is that if you are quoting a free-standing sentence
and that quotation is ending your sentence, then it keeps its full stop
(ie inside the quotes) and it is pointless to add another one. So if you
are stating 'live and let live' as a principle, and you need a full stop
in the vicinity, then it will go inside the quotes. But if you are
quoting it within a sentence (as I did) then no full stop is required.
If it was part of a sentence originally ('I have no doubt that we should
live and let live because that is the best way') and you are ending a
sentence then the full stop goes outside the quotes because you are
quoting part of a sentence.

isn't typesetting fun:-)

So youmust be right about Alice, I think...but the bit you are mising is
that it only arises when you need a full stop in the vicinity of the end
of a quote: then youhave to decide who has the better claim to it - the
quoted or the quoter.
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