more consistent ignoring before node and sections and Top node

[Patrice Dumas]

Hello,

Right now there is a diversity of handling of text at the beginning of
Texinfo manuals, before the first @node and sectioning, but also for the
informations in @titlepage that are not truly title page (@insertcopying
+ publishing info), and also for the Top node.  It is this way to cope
both with printed output and for node based formats such as Info.  But
this is not done consistently for the different formats based on their
book/non book nature, and also it would be good to be able to have
book-like outputs for Plaintext and for HTML, in particular for epub.

Here are my proposals:

Info: always ignore text before the first @node or sectioning command.
It can be in the Info file as it is now, invisible except when looking
at the info file, but how text is hidden is an implementation detail.
Always output the top node.  No changes.

For plaintext, I propose to have two options
* book-like: format the text before the first @node or sectioning
  command, not necessarily the @titlepage, but at least determine
  some title.  Do not output the Top node.
* non book: do not output the text before the first @node or
  sectioning command. If there is @*content before the first @node or
  sectioning command, the table of content is is still output
  before the first node or sectioning command.  The change is that
  text before the first @node or sectioning command is not output.
Default is non book.

DocBook is book-like, but does not allow any text outside of semantic
elements.  Text can be in abstract, dedication, preface, chapter but not
directly in <book>.  Title information and @copying are already used to
format the beginning of DocBook output.  I propose to ignore text before
the first @node or sectioning (unless there is a semantic markup), and
also not to output the Top node, both being changes.

LaTeX and TeX: book-like. Title information is used, text before first
@node or sectioning is formatted, Top node is not output. No change.

HTML: two options
* book-like: format the text before the first @node or sectioning
  including the title page. Do not output the Top node.
  Default for CONTENTS_OUTPUT_LOCATION is after_title
* non book: do not output the text before the first @node or sectioning
  command. Output the top node. Maybe, do not output any title?
  Default for CONTENTS_OUTPUT_LOCATION is after_top as is today.
  Not outputting the the text before the first @node or sectioning command
  is a change, as well as not outputting any title.
Default is non book.


Remarks, comments?  See anything in the proposed changes contrary to
some usage?


Note that this is also an attempt to have the conditions ready to put
the "Copyright page" out of the @titlepage.  That would call for another
change, start the headings not at @end titlepage, but at the first @node
or sectioning command.

-- 
Pat