Re: ambiguous @*table with argument missing formatter argument message

[Gavin Smith]

On Thu, Dec 08, 2022 at 11:58:48PM +0100, Patrice Dumas wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Not sure about that as I am not a native english speaker.  When a
> @*table does not have an @-command formatter for the items, the error
> message is
> 
> d.texi:2: table requires an argument: the formatter for @item
> 
> This message seems fine to me if there is no argument for @*table,
> however, if there is an argument it seems ambiguous as there is already
> an argument, only not of the good type.
> 
> For example the following case of @table with an incorrect argument
> triggers the error message above:
> 
> @table foo
> @end table
> 
> Maybe the message could be changed to something like
> 
> d.texi:2: table requires as argument the formatter for @item
> 
> What do you think?

I do not like the use of the word "formatter" here.

> d.texi:2: bad @table argument

would be sufficient.  It could be difficult to explain the usage
of @table in an short error message.

Perhaps if there is no argument at all it could be

> d.texi:2: @table requires an argument

instead, although this wouldn't be necessary.

I agree with Raymond's suggestion about printing the argument,
although this may be not be easy to do if the rest of the line
was some complicated construct requiring conversion back to Texinfo.