BIPM review: hyphen shown as em-dash

[manuelfuenmayor]

In relation to #112

From BIPM:

Original:

[ronaldtse]

We just need to make sure to use whatever was in the original document that was cited. @manuel489 can you check?

[manuelfuenmayor]

In the markup, I used a hyphen:

... _Evaluation of measurement data - Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement_ ...

[ronaldtse]

Ok so this is a bug in either MN or PDF. However, the original document uses an em dash, so we should follow that: https://www.bipm.org/documents/20126/2071204/JCGM_100_2008_E.pdf/cb0ef43f-baa5-11cf-3f85-4dcd86f77bd6

[manuelfuenmayor]

I see... ok.

[manuelfuenmayor]

But still, hyphens do render as em-dashes. It seems deliberate.

[ronaldtse]

I think that has to be a bug, either in the XML or PDF. @Intelligent2013 can you check? Thanks.

[Intelligent2013]

@ronaldtse looks like there is a bug (or feature) in XML.

Source adoc:

_Evaluation of measurement data - Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement_

Hex: 20(space) 2D(hyphen-minus) 20(space)

MN xml:

<em>Evaluation of measurement data&#8201;&#8212;&#8201;Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement</em>

Hex: 2009(thin space) 2014(em dash) 2009(thin space)

I've removed spaces around 2D (just for experiment) and xml contains it 'as is'

<em>Evaluation of measurement data-Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement</em>

[ronaldtse]

This seems to be a bug in MN XML generation. Ping @opoudjis

[opoudjis]

It is a feature and not a bug in MN XML generation, and it is deliberate. " - " is not acceptable punctuation in any style guide of English (outside of the BBC's), and is emended to be treated identically to " -- " under Asciidoctor, which converts it to " — :". I refer you to e.g. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/hyphens-and-dashes/

This behaviour of "a - b" implemented in metanorma-utils, as part of the general realisation of smart formatting. It was done because we were fetching titles from ISO with a hyphen between title components, but it was clear that ISO's intended rendering was as em-dash, as can be seen perusing any ISO document. https://www.iso.org/standard/33952.html, as you can see from the site, is Sterilization of health care products — Radiation — Part 1: Requirements for development, validation and routine control of a sterilization process for medical devices , not Sterilization of health care products - Radiation - Part 1: Requirements for development, validation and routine control of a sterilization process for medical devices, even if that is what screenscraping was intermittently returning. JCGM documents are no different to ISO documents in that regard.

Realising "a -- b" as "a — b" is a canonical substitution in Asciidoctor, and realising "a - b" in the same way is consistent. To smarten quotation marks, but to leave hyphens as punctuation (!), defeats the purpose of smart quotes.

If you want to reproduce the punctuation of the original in contravention of ISO style and standard punctuation practice, you can, but that should not be default Metanorma behaviour. As documented in https://www.metanorma.org/author/ref/asciidoc-tips/, interpolate a zero-width joiner: Sterilization of health care products ‌- Radiation ‌- Part 1: Requirements for development, validation and routine control of a sterilization process for medical devices

https://www.metanorma.org/author/ref/asciidoc-tips/ documents the behaviour of " -- ", but does not document the parallel treatment of " - "; adding to documentation.

[ronaldtse]

I have consulted BIPM to confirm that this is a non-issue, will update.

[ronaldtse]

Confirmed with Michael Stock of BIPM:

I checked in a number of ‘style guides’ which of hypen, en dash or em dash is most adequate, and found that it is indeed the em dash, which is used on the title page of JCGM 100:2008 and which apparently you also have chosen.

Therefore no further action is needed.