@deffnx problems

[Werner LEMBERG]

[texinfo 4.8]

With older makeinfo versions, the test for HTML output whether @deffn
and friends shall start a new blockquote depended on the next line
(which has been checked without expansion): If it started with address@hidden',
no new blockquote was inserted.

While this undocumented behaviour seemed to be a bit clumsy at the
first moment, it was very helpful to provide new indices for
customized @deffn macros in groff.texinfo:

  @defcodeindex rq

  @macro defdummy
  @c
  @end macro

  @macro Defrequest{...}
  @deffn Request ...
  @defdummy
  @rqindex ...
  @end macro

  @macro Defrequestx{...}
  @deffnx Request ...
  @defdummy
  @rqindex ...
  @end

This no longer gives good output in HMTL.  Saying

  @Defrequest ...
  @Defrequestx ...
  @Defrequestx ...

gives

  --- Request: ...

      --- Request: ...

          --- Request: ...

With other words, this:

  @deffn foo xxx
  @cindex baz
  @deffnx bar yyy
  foobar
  @end deffn

should produce good HTML output.

Looking into the makeinfo code I see that the current implementation
makes it impossible to get the old behaviour back.  Sigh.

The only solution I see is to change the logic when to start the body
of a @deffn: It should be delayed until the first character is printed
so that commands like @XXindex can be inserted between @deffn and
@deffnx without affecting the visual result -- I have no idea whether
this can be easily implemented.


    Werner