On 2022-10-15 12:04:18 +0100, Gavin Smith wrote:
On Fri, Oct 14, 2022 at 09:27:22PM -0500, Jacob Bachmeyer wrote:
Since "var" actually is a TeX macro (Texinfo works by adjusting TeX's
configuration to make @ introduce commands, like backslash does in plain
TeX), would the correct syntax be "@math{\var{base} \le 16}" for the example
above?
No, "plain TeX" means the plain TeX format of Donald Knuth. It does
not include Texinfo commands like @var. If @math{\var{base} \le 16} does
work then this is only by accident, and it will only work with texinfo.tex
not anywhere else.
But since it is used only with texinfo.tex, this is fine. I suspect
that texinfo.tex defines this macro, and if it didn't, the writer of
the manual could do that (but texinfo.tex is the right place in order
to ensure a style consistent with the use of @var outside of @math).