Re: wishlist: implicit anchor for @deffn etc

[Per Bothner]

On 11/02/2017 11:14 AM, Gavin Smith wrote:
> Are you thinking of linking to a definition from within the same manual
> or from another HTML file? If it's the former and there is Texinfo-level
> support for it, then what the link is doesn't matter that much as the
> correct link will be generated by texi2any.  If it's the latter, I would
> also think it doesn't matter that much either, as whoever was writing
> the file would have to look up the exact anchor they are linking to.

I was thinking of links within the same manual.  However, now that you
mention it, it probably makes sense to also support cross-manual links.
The Racket introduction I mentioned in the previous email does indeed
have cross-manual links.

> However, if we want stable links to definitions from external HTML
> files, then this would be more disruptive. When each node is output in
> its own HTML file ("split" output), the link is to that file. If
> definitions are moved between files, the link will break, so there would
> have to be a lot of redirection pages. Because we don't know which
> definitions would be linked to, there would have to be redirection pages
> for them all.

Stable links to definitions from external HTML files would be preferable,
However, "perfect is the enemy of good".  I suspect redirection pages
would be more work than could be justified.
--
        --Per Bothner
address@hidden   http://per.bothner.com/