makeinfo adds a spurious period for @pxref before closing parenthesis

[Vincent Lefevre]

I reported the following bug to the Debian BTS. I don't know if the
upstream version still has the same problem.

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=492210

----- Forwarded message from Vincent Lefevre <address@hidden> -----

Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:23:16 +0200
From: Vincent Lefevre <address@hidden>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <address@hidden>
Subject: texinfo: makeinfo adds a spurious period for @pxref before closing
        parenthesis

Package: texinfo
Version: 4.11.dfsg.1-4
Severity: normal

The texinfo manual says:

8.7 address@hidden'
============

The parenthetical reference command, address@hidden', is nearly the same as
address@hidden', but it is best used at the end of a sentence or before a
closing parenthesis.  The command differs from address@hidden' in two ways:

  1. TeX typesets the reference for the printed manual with a lower case
     `see' rather than an upper case `See'.

  2. The Info formatting commands automatically end the reference with a
     closing colon or period, if necessary.

However if there's a period after a closing parenthesis, makeinfo adds
a second one before. For instance, gmp.texi from GMP 4.2.2 contains:

Libtool is used to build the library and @samp{-version-info} is set
appropriately, having started from @samp{3:0:0} in GMP 3.0 (@pxref{Versioning,
Library interface versions, Library interface versions, libtool, GNU
Libtool}).

and makeinfo generates:

   Libtool is used to build the library and `-version-info' is set
appropriately, having started from `3:0:0' in GMP 3.0 (*note Library
interface versions: (libtool)Versioning.).

makeinfo should be able to handle this case to generate instead:

   Libtool is used to build the library and `-version-info' is set
appropriately, having started from `3:0:0' in GMP 3.0 (*note Library
interface versions: (libtool)Versioning).

Note that this is correct typography according to some manuals, such
as the Chicago Manual Of Style, 14th Ed.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.25.8-20080623 (SMP w/2 CPU cores; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=POSIX, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages texinfo depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.7-12     GNU C Library: Shared libraries

texinfo recommends no packages.

Versions of packages texinfo suggests:
ii  texinfo-doc-nonfree        4.11-1        texinfo and info documentation tha
ii  texlive-base               2007.dfsg.1-2 TeX Live: Essential programs and f
ii  texlive-generic-recommende 2007.dfsg.1-2 TeX Live: Miscellaneous generic ma
ii  texlive-latex-base         2007.dfsg.1-2 TeX Live: Basic LaTeX packages

-- no debconf information

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <address@hidden> - Web: <http://www.vinc17.org/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <http://www.vinc17.org/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Arenaire project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)