Re: with HTML output, @minus{} is converted to a hyphen instead of a real minus character

[Vincent Lefevre]

On 2022-10-12 11:11:53 +0200, Patrice Dumas wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 12, 2022 at 01:13:07AM +0200, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> > With Texinfo 6.8 and HTML output, @minus{} is converted to a hyphen
> > instead of a real minus character (U+2212 MINUS SIGN).
> 
> It is actually not clear to me why an ASCII - is output in the default
> case, and not −.  Maybe it was for compatibility with the US-ASCII
> default encoding?

This should normally be unrelated: the encoding is about the HTML
source, while the "output charset" has been Unicode for a long time,
and there are no reasons to have the same requirements about the
encoding. Character references such as "−" were introduced
in HTML for this reason.

> This could be changed now the UTF-8 is the default encoding.

Is it? I cannot see any change in the NEWS file in master.

> Opinions?

I agree that UTF-8 should be the default encoding. Then the behavior
with old encodings would be less important.

The NEWS file in master currently says:

 . HTML/DocBook output:
     . meaning of USE_NUMERIC_ENTITY changed to be using numeric entities in
       priority.  former effect is now always on.
     . ENABLE_ENCODING_USE_ENTITY variable removed.  former effect is now
       always off.

I wonder what this means, in particular if US-ASCII is used.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)