Re: [patch 0/7] some bits of simpler-proc ready for review

[Ben Pfaff]

John Darrington <address@hidden> writes:

> On Sun, Jun 03, 2007 at 08:31:23AM -0700, Ben Pfaff wrote:
>
>      > In so far as these patches go, the only concern I have is removing the 
>      > next/prev/up pointers from the documentation.  It will make the manual 
>      > harder to navigate.
>      
>      Removing the pointers from the documentation has no effect on the
>      .info file, because the makeinfo program is smart enough to
>      reconstruct the pointers. 
>
> Really?  It certainly never used to.  It must be a recent feature.

Here is what the Texinfo manual says on the topic:

    6.4 Creating Pointers with `makeinfo'
    =====================================

    The `makeinfo' program has a feature for automatically determining node
    pointers for a hierarchically organized document.

      When you take advantage of this feature, you do not need to write the
    `Next', `Previous', and `Up' pointers after the name of a node.
    However, you must write a sectioning command, such as address@hidden' or
    address@hidden', on the line immediately following each truncated 
address@hidden'
    line (except that comment lines may intervene).

      In addition, you must follow the `Top' address@hidden' line with a line
    beginning with address@hidden' to mark the `Top' node in the file.  *Note
    address@hidden': makeinfo top.

      Finally, you must write the name of each node (except for the `Top'
    node) in a menu that is one or more hierarchical levels above the
    node's hierarchical level.

      This implicit node pointer insertion feature in `makeinfo' relieves
    you from the need to update menus and pointers manually or with Texinfo
    mode commands.  (*Note Updating Nodes and Menus::.)

      In most cases, you will want to take advantage of this feature and not
    redundantly specify node pointers.  However, Texinfo documents are not
    required to be organized hierarchically or in fact to contain
    sectioning commands at all (for example, if you never intend the
    document to be printed).  The special procedure for handling the short
    text before a menu (*note Menus::) also disables this feature, for that
    group of nodes.  In those cases, you will need to explicitly specify
    the pointers.

> Presumably  it will do the same when using makeinfo to generate html
> files?

I have used Texinfo pretty extensively for various manuals and
other documents and never noticed that its behavior varied in
this respect from one output format to another.
-- 
Ben Pfaff 
http://benpfaff.org