Re: [bug #42897] texi2any does not bark at incorrect menu entry, and makes erroneous info output

[Gavin Smith]

>Like this:
>
>  C-u C-h i /path/to/arbitrary-info-file RET
Thanks, I managed to open a file.

On Sat, Aug 2, 2014 at 7:44 PM, Vincent Belaïche
<address@hidden> wrote:
> Follow-up Comment #2, bug #42897 (project texinfo):
>
> The EMACS info viewer is not consistent in the way as it handles the space
> after `:'. If this is the last entry in the menu like `* Mon entrée:Mon
> noeud.' in [file#31824  temp1.texi] and resulting [file#31825  temp1.info],
> then the space is not a problem.
> Now, if it is *NOT* the last entry, like `* Mon entrée:Mon noeud.' in
> [file#31826  temp2.texi] and resulting [file#31827  temp2.info], the viewer
> does not handle the entry properly.

It looks like the menu entry label is thought to stretch across
multiple lines. This would have to be fixed in emacs Info, assuming it
is desirable to do so. I don't think that is very useful for index
entries to have a newline in the middle. This could be reported to the
emacs maintainers as a convenience for hand-written menu entries, if
others agree. I think that automatically generated menus (by texi2any)
should continue to use colon-space, of course.

> It would be better if there was some colon escape command in Texinfo, like
> @comma{}, @{, @} and @@ for other special characters, and that this colon
> escape would be used in place of colon when it is part of the node/label name.
> Maybe a @string command would be more concise for escaping `,' and `:', i.e.
> you would write address@hidden, world: I'm happy.}' instead of address@hidden
> address@hidden I'm address@hidden', assuming that @colon{} and @period{} are
> the two new commands for inserting a colon and period respectively in menu
> entries.
>

Be careful about the difference between Texinfo syntax and Info
syntax. The escape commands you mention are Texinfo constructs and
don't appear in Info files. In fact, we have been discussing some form
of escaping of special characters in Info files. Something like the
@string command you mention might be needed to produce a correctly
escaped node/label name.