Re: makeinfo and CSS (was: @format and @display in HTML output)

[Karl Berry]

Hi Torsten,

    > --css-include=FILE    include contents of FILE after the 
built-indefinitions
    > --css-reference=URL   put @import(URL) after the <style> tag
    > --css-omit-defaults   do not include the built-in definitions
    >
    > This seems like a lot of options.  Is there a cleaner way?

    I think that the first two options are necessary and well named.
    You can make the third option implicit: If a *reference* is given
    the defaults are omitted.  So if the user wants to use their CSS'es
    in an @import rule, they have to provide a complete set.  I see no
    point in override the user's @import'ed definitions, especially
    because makeinfo's default CSS may be changed or extended.

Aren't potential changes in makeinfo css exactly the reason to include
them by default?  After all, the <style> stuff we just did is not really
"stylistic".  It's the implementation of the @small... Texinfo feature
in the HTML output, and every user (except pathological ones) would want
to include it, since the output isn't correct without it.  

    You could limit it to just the first option if you scan the given
    file to find out whether it starts with an @import rule.  (It must
    come first according to the scpecification, so you only have to skip
    whitespace and comments for that.)  

Hmm, that seems like a reasonable way to avoid the --css-reference
option.  Except now if the included file has both @import's and inline
definitions, we have to insert the defaults in the middle.

Guess I'll think some more, the best approach still isn't clear to me.

Thanks for all the info.

k