Re: CVS Texinfo fails to build the Autoconf manual (from git)

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2012 14:00:09 +0200
> From: Patrice Dumas <address@hidden>
> 
> > Macros never worked well with TeX, so -E was a band-aid that not
> > always worked.
> 
> I don't understand.  If macro do not work well with TeX, -E is a way to
> avoid expanding macros in TeX.

Because macros didn't work well with TeX, people avoided using them
when DVI output was important, so "makeinfo -E" was seldom used.

> > Yes, @if* are the problem.
> 
> And you think it is not fixed by calling makeinfo with --iftex
> --no-ifinfo?

First, there are also @ifset and @ifclear.

Then AFAIR there were problems with separate macro definitions for TeX
and for Info.  I'm not sure using explicit --iftex etc. solved them.

More generally, if macros are used in a mix with other Texinfo
commands, which are not expanded by "makeinfo -E", there's always a
possibility of problems that don't happen in "makeinfo" proper.

> > If that can be fixed, it would be a good thing.  OTOH, if the new
> > macro expansion machinery will work well with TeX, perhaps -E could be
> > deprecated altogether.
> 
> I don't really get what is the 'new macro expansion machinery'.

The one in texi2any.

> Basically, the new expansion machinery is the makeinfo in C expansion
> without the inconsistencies and bugs.

Well, that makes it "new".