Re: in Info space after *note required for cross ref?

[Patrice Dumas]

On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 09:39:37PM +0000, Karl Berry wrote:
>     That is should
>       *note-something:: 
>     be a cross reference to `-something'?  
> 
> I think not.  Is there a way to generate the *note for an xref without
> the space?

I don't think so.

>     Also would an empty label be accepted, that is something along
>      *note: a node name.
>     or 
>      *note : a node name.
> 
> Same answer.  I don't know any way to generate such constructs.  Does
> anyone? So I'm inclined to consider such weird borderline cases invalid.

The second one may be generated with texi2any, with

  @ref{node, , @ }

Actually what is generated is 

  *note  : node.

The standalone info reader happily follows the cross ref.

>     As a side note, regarding the space after the :, I think that it should
>     be optional.
> 
> Again, is there any way to actually get such output (with a space)?

You mean without a space, right?  I don't think this may be generated
with texi2any in a @xref, but it could be in a menu.  For example

@menu
* a:node.
@end menu

texi2any parses this construct as a menu entry with label 'a' and 
node 'node'.  The standalone reader follows this cross-ref.

> I guess all this means, once we reach a conclusion,
> 1) the new makeinfo should only warn about @strong{Note} when the result
>    is actually ambiguous, as occasioned the whole discussion, and

Ok.

> 2) the standalone Info reader should get smarter about recognizing such
>    things, and
> 3) our Info reference documentation should get some more details, since
>    it doesn't explain the whitespace requirements (or lack thereof) much.

Ok.

> I'm sure Sergey would like some examples to do 2), which I expect you'll
> construct as test cases for 1) anyway.

Most cannot be constructed.  For instance

  *note:node.
  *note-node.

which the info reader follows.
Or

*note-node::

for which the info reader says
  -node: No such file or directory



Here are some precise questions and my answers, with ? when I don't
know.

texi2any
--------

1) Should texi2any warn about an empty label as in @ref{node, , @ }
(yes, at least when generating Info)

2) Should texi2any warn about an empty label in menu, such as

  @menu
  * :vvv
  * : vvv
  @end menu

(yes, always)

3) Should texi2any warn about a case with no space after and or 
before : in menu

  @menu
  * a:vvv.
  @end menu

(no)


Info reader
-----------

Should the following cross-refs be followed:

*note a:vvv.
*note a :vvv.
*note a : vvv.

*note : vvv,
*note :vvv,
*note: vvv,
*note:vvv.

*note-vvv.
*note-vvv::

(yes, yes, yes, ?, ?, no, no, no, no)

And following menu entries:

* a:vvv.
* :vvv

(yes, ?)



I attach a texi file to generate examples and the generated info file.

-- 
Pat

bad_refs.texi
Description: TeXInfo document

bad_refs.info
Description: Text document