Re: --xml and different node and sectionning structures

[Torsten Bronger]

Hallöchen!

Patrice Dumas writes:

> On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 03:58:51AM +0200, Torsten Bronger wrote:
>
>> texi2latex doesn't care about the nesting.
>> 
>> By the way, DocBook output needs the nesting and works smoothly.
>
> Indeed, but it ignores completly the nodes structure.

Because it doesn't need it.  But it does need the nesting, so I
think it's sensible to have nesting in the Texinfo XML.  Otherwise,
XML-based converters with nesting target formats will have to
reconstruct it.  It's much easier to flatten a structure than vice
versa.

I think Texinfo XML's nesting should reflect secioning only, and
nodes should be just empty elements, as the optional first child of
a section.  If I remember correctly, bad things (warnings/errors)
happen anyway if the node and sectioning structures of a document
are too much diverging.  Unfortunately, the format allows this.

Oh well.

Visiting Texinfo after a long time, I wonder whether there is
motivation and spare time to overhaul Texinfo, accepting *small*
incompatibilities?

As with Python 3 recently, one could create a converter to the new
syntax.  Makeinfo could even detect an old version and run the
converter internally (emitting a warning about the waste of time).

Some things that I find very important:

(1) GIVE UP the tight binding to TeX!!  Consider TeX a mere backend
    to which Texinfo must be converted.

(2) UTF-8 and localisation stuff.  Almost impossible without (1).

(3) Floats and graphics sorted out for all backends.  Very difficult
    without (1).

(4) Syntax improvements.  Many commands have gathered too many
    arguments, there are too many cross reference commands, and the
    conditional processing should be put in question.

(5) Other things that I can't recollect because it's been too long
    ago.

I have the impression that further work on Texinfo has become a
rather unthankful task.  Maybe the Gordian knot must be cut (and
this is the connection to TeX ;-)?

Apart from the work of an overhaul and the necessity to provide
automatic conversion, generating Info files still must be fast,
given the number of make files that make them.  The other backends,
however, can be programmed comfortably in various languages.  Doing
text-crunching in C is awful.

Tschö,
Torsten.

-- 
Torsten Bronger, aquisgrana, europa vetus
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