Re: When should we put @key inside @kbd?

[Gavin Smith]

On Sat, Jan 01, 2022 at 11:38:53PM +0000, Gavin Smith wrote:
> > If/Since you are going to undo all that, fine by me, but I suggest
> > 1) to be sure and update the manual with whatever users are supposed to
> > do to get , and
> > 2) it would seem strange to me for HTML and PDF/DVI output to behave
> > differently, which is what you seem to have implemented. Or maybe not,
> > I can't really tell.
> 
> I hadn't checked the PDF/DVI output, but doing so, I see the output had
> been consistent with what was being done in HTML.  I propose that this is
> also changed for PDF/DVI output to unslant @key inside @kbd.

It's actually more complicated with texinfo.tex in that

@kbd{@key{TAB}}

wouldn't be in slanted typewriter, whereas

@kbd{M-@key{TAB}}

would be.  The comment in texinfo.tex

% @kbd is like @code, except that if the argument is just one @key command,
% then @kbd has no effect.

goes back older than the git version history.  Looking at old releases it
seems to go right back to Texinfo 3.0 (although I don't have a complete
collection of old Texinfo releases).  I didn't find any discussion of
@key inside @kbd in particular.