Re: Texinfo macros and m4

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2011 23:58:39 GMT
> From: address@hidden (Karl Berry)
> Cc: address@hidden
> 
>     In any case, the replacement macro-processor will have to be run by
>     texi2xxx and produce TeX output without any trace of macros.  
> 
> Exactly.  Whatever the new macro facility is, whether m4 or something
> homegrown, it will *not* be processed by texinfo.tex.  That would be of
> no value whatsoever.

Agreed.  But note the crucial detail that plagued "makeinfo -E": the
macro expansion must know about @ifset/@ifclear, and only expand those
parts that the user expects.  So a completely external solution will
probably not DTRT.

>     Come to think about it, what Texinfo needs is very similar to cpp.
> 
> For the reasons you cite, at least, I don't think cpp is a serious
> contender.

I didn't mean to say it was.  I meant to describe the needed
functionality without going into too many details.