Re: Warn about invalid node names

[Patrice Dumas]

On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 05:42:15AM +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> Correction: users don't like unhelpful warnings.

But the definition of unhelpful may be rather subjective and use-case
dependent.

> If the node names are invalid for Info, they are by definition
> invalid, and need to be fixed at the Texinfo level.

I disagree, the definition of invalid node at the Texinfo level is a
node name that is not parsed as such (this is especially possible in
@menu entries).  As I said, it is always possible to protect a node
name at the Texinfo level.  An invalid node at the Info level is 
different, as there is no possibility to protect characters that have 
a meaning in node lines or menu.  Given the historical link between Info
and Texinfo, it is true that, in general, an unprotected node name
invalid in Texinfo is also invalid in Info -- though this is not the
case in @*ref in general.  This does not make invalidity in Texinfo 
and Info the same.

> Texinfo is a language that supports all of its output formats; if one
> of those outputs is broken by a node name, the node name must be
> fixed.

DocBook is also easily broken, by having @contents someplace else than at
the beginning or end of the document, and same for @printindex.  We
added a warning for @contents, but then removed it.  

It is always possible to add warnings specific of converters, but I 
would like to avoid that as much as possible, as I think that it is
confusing to have different warning messages for different output
formats.

-- 
Pat