Re: [help-texinfo] preferred way to change output for a macro

[Patrice Dumas]

On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 09:41:37AM -0700, Robert Dodier wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 2:52 AM, Patrice Dumas <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > Could you be more specific?  I see nothing that implies that user
> > defined macros could redefine the indicating commands?
> 
> Section 9.1 of the Texinfo 5.1 manual.
> 
> "Texinfo has commands for indicating just what kind of object a
> piece of text refers to. For example, metasyntactic variables are
> marked by @var, and code by @code. Since the pieces of text
> are labeled by commands that tell what kind of object they are,
> it is easy to change the way the Texinfo formatters prepare such
> text. (Texinfo is an intentional formatting language rather than a
> typesetting formatting language.)"
> 
> I have to wonder what is "easy to change" here, if it is not
> the output of @var and other macros.

Indeed, but the text stresses that it is easy to change by 
"Texinfo formatters", which does not imply that it is easy to change 
with user defined macros.  Thexinfo formatters are makeinfo, TeX and 
the emacs texinfo converter (and any other program that converts Texinfo).

The text in parenthesis reinforces this idea in my opinion:

 Texinfo is an intentional formatting language rather than a typesetting
 formatting language

> "For example, in a printed manual, code is usually illustrated in
> a typewriter font; @code tells TeX to typeset this text in this font.
> But it would be easy to change the way TeX highlights code to
> use another font, [....]"
> 
> How shall we easily change the way code is typeset,
> if changing @code is discouraged? Surely it is not suggesting
> that such changes are easy for Texinfo developers alone,

I think that it is indeed suggesting that those changes are easy for 
Texinfo developers, and in the quotation above, the TeX formatter is 
explicitly used.

> and just as surely it is not suggesting to do a global search
> and replace s/@code/@mycode/g.

Indeed, it does not suggest anything, like that, maybe we should say
somewhere (in the user macros "Defining Macros" node.  As a side note,
for changing the indicating commands formatting there is @definfoenclose 
that is built in the Texinfo language, but not for TeX (and more suited 
for Info than for other formats).

-- 
Pat