Re: TRAMP User Manual problems with Texinfo 5.0

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2013 18:12:24 +0100
> From: Patrice Dumas <address@hidden>
> 
> On Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 12:15:11PM +0200, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > 
> > Btw, the comparison of the produced files is made gratuitously hard by
> > spurious unrelated changes in the output.  The most annoying one is
> > that @code and @samp now produce 'foo' rather than `foo'. 
> 
> I don't like that change either (nor Karl does, if I recall well), but 
> it was consistent with some changes in the GNU coding standards.

I don't mind the change; I do mind that there's no way to get the old
behavior without hacking the sources.

> >   'OPEN_QUOTE_SYMBOL'
> >        When an opening quote is needed, use the corresponding character;
> >        default '&lsquo;' for HTML, '&#8216;' for Docbook.
> > 
> > What is "the corresponding character"?  
> 
> The character you specified.

May I suggest to say just that?  "Corresponding" has no useful meaning
in this context.

> > How to tell texi2any to use `
> > in Info output?  Is this option at all relevant to Info output format?
> 
> No, it isn't.  In general the only customizable output format is HTML.
> Here it also affects DocBook, but that's merely a coincidence.  I guess
> this could be clearer.  Karl, I let the wording to you?

I'd rather prefer that Info output could also be controlled.  Who
should I beg for it to be done?

> If you want to come back to the old behaviour, I think you need to
> change the code in tp/Texinfo/Convert/Plaintext.pm line 272, and replace
> 
>   $style_map{$quoted_command} = ["'", "'"];
> 
> with
> 
>   $style_map{$quoted_command} = ["`", "'"];

Thanks.

> These files are perl files and should follow an API that is not
> final for now.  Should be along
> 
>   set_from_init_file('OPEN_QUOTE_SYMBOL', '`');

I certainly hope the syntax will become less Perl-specific.

> We intentionally let everything related to init files out of the
> documentation, to avoid that people use it before it is stable.

I'm sorry, but I think those were wrong decisions.  There was nothing
urgent in releasing Texinfo 5.0, which could have caused the release
to be made before making sure that these issues are finalized,
implemented in user-friendly ways, and well documented.  On the
contrary, releasing the package in this state runs a high risk of
alienating users, something that IMO should be avoided after such a
major redesign.