Re: TRAMP User Manual problems with Texinfo 5.0

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2013 11:42:52 +0100
> From: Patrice Dumas <address@hidden>
> 
> On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 10:38:39PM +0200, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > 
> > But since pre-v5 makeinfo repeatedly expanded text until there was
> > nothing left to expand, the @c and everything after it, including the
> > newline, would then disappear without a trace.
> 
> I think that the main difference lies elsewhere.  My understanding is
> that, faced with something like
> 
> 
> @heading aaa @amacro{lksfsdf, fsdsfdsd}
> 
> makeinfo in C takes the whole line, 
>   aaa @amacro{lksfsdf, fsdsfdsd}
> converts it in a new context, and, then outputs it.
> 
> 
> 
> For instance, with
> 
>   @macro ggg{}
>   aaaaaaaa hhhhh
>   
>   aaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa
>   ggggggggg ggggggg gggggggg gggggggggg ggggggggggg
>   jjjjj jjjjjjjJJjjjjjj jjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjj
>   gggggg ggggggggggg ggggggggggggggggg
>   bbbbbbb bbbbbb bbbbbbbbbb
>   @end macro
> 
>   @node Top
> 
>   @heading jj @ggg{}
> 
> The whole @ggg expansion is considered to be the @heading argument.

Yes.  That's what I meant by "repeatedly expand" above.  Conceptually,
the macro @ggg would be expanded on a higher stack level, and then the
stack would be popped to continue with @heading, with the expansion
now its argument.

> This is quite different from the implementation now, as now user defined
> macros are textually expanded, such that the above, with texi2any is
> exactly the same as
> 
>   @node Top
> 
>   @heading jj aaaaaaaa hhhhh
> 
>   aaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa
>   ggggggggg ggggggg gggggggg gggggggggg ggggggggggg
>   jjjjj jjjjjjjJJjjjjjj jjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjj
>   gggggg ggggggggggg ggggggggggggggggg
>   aaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa
> 
> 
> I think that the new implementation is better, because it is more
> consistent. With the makeinfo in C implementation it is not possible to
> write some texinfo code that will give the same result as the Texinfo
> code with macro expansions.
> 
> However, maybe it would deserve something in the NEWS file?

Most definitely.