Re: Missing info and dangling references on manual page "Preparing for TeX"

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hello, Gavin.

On Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 13:33:53 +0100, Gavin Smith wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 14, 2019 at 09:57:15PM +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> > Hello, Texinfo.
> > 
> > I'm reading the Texinfo manual version from version 6.6 (16th February
> > 2019).
> > 
> > 1/- On page "Preparing for Texinfo", We have:
> > 
> >     TeX needs to know where to find the 'texinfo.tex' file that the
> >     '\input texinfo' command on the first line reads.
> > 
> > There is then an absence of any direction on how to give TeX this
> > information.  The paragraph continues with unrelated information.  This
> > is disconcerting.

> Thanks for the report; I agree it is confusing.

> I have done some editing in commit b6e4b84.

Many thanks!

> > 3/- (A bit lower down still):
> > 
> >     If neither of the above locations for these system files suffice,
> >     you can specify the directories explicitly.
> > 
> > There are no "above locations" in this page that I can see.  Is this a
> > hangover from some reorganisation of the page which removed these "above
> > locations"?

> In old Texinfo releases (before 6.0) I found this text was present:

> Usually, the installer has put the @file{texinfo.tex} file in the
> default directory that contains @TeX{} macros when GNU Texinfo, Emacs or
> other GNU software is installed.  In this case, @TeX{} will find the
> file and you do not need to do anything special.  If this has not been
> done, you can put @file{texinfo.tex} in the current directory when you
> run @TeX{}, and @TeX{} will find it there.

> Even with that text, it wasn't very clear.

> I tracked it down to (what is now) revision 95f1ebadc, which was a 
> general edit of this part of the manual.

Ancient history is often fascinating!  I'll look forward to reading the
amended page at the next release of Texinfo.

Thanks again!

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).