Re: A Roadmap for TexInfo without Info

[Gavin Smith]

On 26 November 2016 at 16:59, Per Bothner <address@hidden> wrote:
>> 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.
>
>
> I'm not sure what you mean by "index-based search".  That sounds like
> searching by making use of a pre-computed index, which is different from
> plain searching the actual text, which I though our goal is.

HTML can't be a full replacement for Info unless features like the
index-based search are available.

I don't have much more to say. I said some things before on the
subject in this message:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2015-07/msg00082.html.

> The obvious issue with having a single big page is that it can be slower to
> download.  This is rarely a problem if the web page is local, and in an
> age of bloated web-pages and fast networks having big "hinfo" pages
> is probably acceptable.
>
> So I suggest we focus on single-page manuals, at least initially.

This kind of technical problem will be resolved when someone produces
something useful, like working on one of the projects I mentioned in
this message

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2016-11/msg00008.html
* modify texi2any to have an option to output HTML5
* create a HTML documentation reader in JavaScript with advanced features
* work on distribution or installation of HTML files. for example,
this could be done by a GNU/Linux distribution that wants to make HTML
documentation available.

Another project would be to process HTML manuals in Emacs Lisp.