all: usage of backticks and single quotes in the codebase

[shmsr]

What version of Go are you using (go version)?

$ go version
go version go1.15.2 darwin/amd64

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?

Yes

What operating system and processor architecture are you using (go env)?

Operating System: Mac OS Catalina
Arch: amd64

go env Output

$ go env
GO111MODULE=""
GOARCH="amd64"
GOBIN=""
GOCACHE="/Users/subhamsarkar/Library/Caches/go-build"
GOENV="/Users/subhamsarkar/Library/Application Support/go/env"
GOEXE=""
GOFLAGS=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="darwin"
GOINSECURE=""
GOMODCACHE="/Users/subhamsarkar/go/pkg/mod"
GONOPROXY=""
GONOSUMDB=""
GOOS="darwin"
GOPATH="/Users/subhamsarkar/go"
GOPRIVATE=""
GOPROXY="https://proxy.golang.org,direct"
GOROOT="/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec"
GOSUMDB="sum.golang.org"
GOTMPDIR=""
GOTOOLDIR="/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/pkg/tool/darwin_amd64"
GCCGO="gccgo"
AR="ar"
CC="clang"
CXX="clang++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
GOMOD=""
CGO_CFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_CPPFLAGS=""
CGO_CXXFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_FFLAGS="-g -O2"
CGO_LDFLAGS="-g -O2"
PKG_CONFIG="pkg-config"
GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fno-caret-diagnostics -Qunused-arguments -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/var/folders/n2/w00w99g93cj26xl42msl6lc80000gp/T/go-build872030515=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches -fno-common"

What did you do?

I was reading the documented for Ticker and I noticed that:

A Ticker holds a channel that delivers `ticks' of a clock at intervals.

Notice that "ticks" is enclosed between <backtick> and <single-quote>.

Reference to a similar issue from the issue tracker: #30955
Also, refer to this commit

I'm using BSD's grep with the regex "\x20`[^(\`\')]+'\x20" to find similar patterns in the codebase and I even could find some.

$ grep -r -E "\x20\`[^(\`\')]+\'\x20" /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/src

/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/src/cmd/go/go_test.go:	tg.grepStderr("^hello world", `ldflags -X "main.extern=hello world"' failed`)
/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/src/cmd/vendor/golang.org/x/mod/module/module.go:// (The excluded punctuation characters, " * < > ? ` ' | / \ and :,
/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/src/compress/bzip2/bzip2.go:	c            [256]uint // the `C' array for the inverse BWT.
/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/src/compress/bzip2/bzip2.go:	tt           []uint32  // mirrors the `tt' array in the bzip2 source and contains the P array in the upper 24 bits.
/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/src/compress/bzip2/bzip2.go:	// The `C' array (used by the inverse BWT) needs to be zero initialized.
/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/src/compress/bzip2/bzip2.go:// In that document, origPtr is called `I' and c is the `C' array after the
/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/src/compress/bzip2/bzip2.go:// This also implements the `single array' method from the bzip2 source code
/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/src/archive/tar/writer_test.go:		//	gnutar: Substituting `.' for empty member name
/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/src/archive/tar/writer_test.go:		//	gnutar: Substituting `.' for empty member name
/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/src/encoding/gob/encoder_test.go:		t.Fatal("round 3: expected `bad type' error decoding ET2")
/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.15.2/libexec/src/time/tick.go:// A Ticker holds a channel that delivers `ticks' of a clock

(Note: There are some false positives as well)

So, I think we should either change

`<text>'

to

'<text>'

or

``<text>''

Although I know the history behind the usage of backticks and single quote but I still think that we should update it.
Also, it seems like a very small change but if it's to be considered then I'd like to send a CL for the same.

What did you expect to see?

$ go doc time.Ticker

package time // import "time"

type Ticker struct {
	C <-chan Time // The channel on which the ticks are delivered.
	// Has unexported fields.
}
    A Ticker holds a channel that delivers “ticks” of a clock at intervals.

func NewTicker(d Duration) *Ticker
func (t *Ticker) Reset(d Duration)
func (t *Ticker) Stop()

or

$ go doc time.Ticker

package time // import "time"

type Ticker struct {
	C <-chan Time // The channel on which the ticks are delivered.
	// Has unexported fields.
}
    A Ticker holds a channel that delivers 'ticks' of a clock at intervals.

func NewTicker(d Duration) *Ticker
func (t *Ticker) Reset(d Duration)
func (t *Ticker) Stop()

What did you see instead?

$ go doc time.Ticker

package time // import "time"

type Ticker struct {
	C <-chan Time // The channel on which the ticks are delivered.
	// Has unexported fields.
}
    A Ticker holds a channel that delivers `ticks' of a clock at intervals.

func NewTicker(d Duration) *Ticker
func (t *Ticker) Reset(d Duration)
func (t *Ticker) Stop()

[ianlancetaylor]

CC @robpike

[rsc]

It is fine to change the ones here meant as quotes in doc comments to `` and ''.
The ones outside doc comments are harmless and can be left as is.

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/262397 mentions this issue: all: fix quoting for compress/bzip2 and time's godoc