Re: annoying warnings with makeinfo 4.0d

[Werner LEMBERG]

> This warning is issued because texinfo.tex doesn't get along with
> such cases.  Here's the relevant excerpt:
> 
>   /* It's easy to write @defun foo(arg1 arg2), but this is misparsed by
>      texinfo.tex.  Warn about it.  */
>   if (*scan_args && **scan_args && !whitespace (**scan_args))
>     {
>       warning ("`%c' follows defined name `%s' instead of whitespace",
>               **scan_args, defined_name);
>     }
> 
> So my question would be: does this work in the printed version of the
> manual?

Due to the broken macro support in texinfo.tex, I always use
texi2dvi's `-e' option, but this produces nice output.

> However, in general, Werner, I'd say that your use of @deffn
> surprises me.  You effectively disable all its features; for
> example, you use @var instead of letting @deffn do that for you
> (which it only can do if the arguments stand out surrounded by
> whitespace).

Sigh, groff's syntax doesn't allow whitespace in many cases.  It's a
different world...

> You also provide your own indexing directives.

The default index mechanism sucks :-) I (ab)use @deffn for troff
escapes, requests, registers, and strings which all should have an
index of its own.

> Since you don't use any features of @deffn, I wonder why do you need
> it at all?  Perhaps just use @table or something, and solve the
> warning problem as well?

I want the formatting achieved by @deffn (i.e. the line sticking out
at the left and right in the printed DVI output); I had to write a lot
of additional TeX macros to do that without @deffn.  Admittedly, I use
texinfo's syntax to its extreme, but I'm quite satisfied with the
results (check it!), producing nice output.

As you probably remember, about a year ago I called for a generic
@deffn replacement, getting rid of all the specialties for Lisp and C
-- unfortunately, I didn't manage to proceed, but I found the above
tricks and thus stopped to search further...


    Werner