@defblock and @defline in texi2any

[Gavin Smith]

On Sat, Feb 11, 2023 at 08:16:18PM +0000, Gavin Smith wrote:
> OK, I know that dynamically updating command lists or handling
> command macro expansion can add a lot of complexity to texi2any.
> The next step now is probably to add @defblock to texi2any.

(switching to bug-texinfo which is a more appropriate mailing list)

I've added a basic implementation of this.

The input can look like

    @defblock
    @defline Funnyction odd (bob, job)
    @deflinex Funoid argle (bargle, jargle)
    description
    here
    @end defblock

The output is as you would expect and I've tested this basic case
with Info, LaTeX, DocBook, HTML and Texinfo-XML formats.  There are
no index entries made by default.

The next step is to get copiable anchors to work in HTML.  I imagine
there should always be a copiable anchor even if there is no index
entry, as the definition line is a kind of heading.  Then if there
are further index entries, like

    @defcodeindex fy
    @defcodeindex fd

    @defblock
    @fyindex odd
    @defline Funnyction odd (bob, job)
    @fdindex argle
    @deflinex Funoid argle (bargle, jargle)
    description
    here
    @end defblock

the index entries would all refer to the first line.

It's similar to copiable anchors in @table, and would be
implemented in a similar way.  (For example, with a function like
'relate_index_entries_to_table_items_in_tree' in Texinfo/Common.pm
to set 'entry_associated_element' for the index commands, and use
this in Texinfo/Convert/HTML.pm in '_prepare_index_entries' or other
functions.)

Does this all sound okay?

Then we could add tests involving the new commands.  It may not
be necessary to have both @defline and @deflinex.

> I still don't think that
> 
> @defMac{macro1, (arg1@comma{} arg2)}
> 
> is a very good syntax, though.  Maybe we could come back to this.
>