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Re: A Roadmap for TexInfo without Info


From: Eli Zaretskii
Subject: Re: A Roadmap for TexInfo without Info
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2016 10:23:30 +0200

> Cc: address@hidden
> From: Per Bothner <address@hidden>
> Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2016 07:49:23 -0800
> 
> On 11/25/2016 01:05 AM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> >
> > Maybe in your argument, but then abandoning Info makes much less sense
> > to me.  Inventing yet another specialized format and coding yet
> > another specialized reader means repeating the Info experience over
> > again, i.e. we didn't learn anything from the current experience.
> 
> I am proposing plain html (or maybe xhtml), not "another specialized format".

I was replying to this part:

> > > The whole justification of the move to something based on HTML is to
> > > allow people to use the existing browsers to read the GNU
> > > documentation.
> > 
> > No, the justification and my argument goes way beyond that.

"Way beyond that" seems to say that you are not proposing plain HTML
or XHTML.  If you now say you didn't mean that, I have no problem with
this part of your proposal.  However, ...

> I'm proposing focusing on two readers, not "another specialized reader":
> (1) Generic web browsers, using (optional) JavaScript for info-style 
> navigation.
> (Of course the html would not *require* JavaScript or CSS.)
> (2) Emacs, using a melding of eww-mode and info-mode.

Emacs should be out of scope of this discussion, because we all agree
it will support the new format, and will have no problems doing that.

The important issue is (1).  Making the new format readable with Web
browsers is the correct direction, IMO, but it needs to solve the few
basic deficiencies in the current browsers due to which they still
cannot beat any Info reader.  One of the most important ones is
index-based search, for example.

Your page says specifically that JavaScript is not up to speed for a
least some of these features.  I know almost nothing about JavaScript,
but if you are right, then this is a serious problem that needs to be
resolved.  Perhaps the GNU project should develop plug-ins for the
popular browsers to solve these problems and provide the necessary
features.  Or maybe some other solution is possible.  But until
there's a practical solution that can be implemented and installed
with any modern browser, the proposal to switch from Info to some
other format is not serious enough for the GNU project to consider,
IMO.



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