Re: @example + @var = spacing bug?

[Mark Polesky]

Karl Berry wrote:
> Well, whether it's the right choice is arguable, but they
> do intentionally switch to normal slanted/italic.  The
> theory is that specifying metavariables and/or emphasizing
> text inside code examples doesn't really make sense.
>
> What is your example actually about?  Would @kbd be
> appropriate?  It uses typewriter slanted (by default)
> inside @example.
>
> By the way, what manual are you working on?  I'm just
> curious.  New Texinfo bug reporters don't come along that
> often :).

I'm working on the LilyPond manual.

Here's the actual example in html (spacing is good):
http://kainhofer.com/~lilypond/Documentation/contributor/generating-documentation.html

...and in pdf (spacing is bad),
page 38 of 110 (p.31 of the main text):
http://kainhofer.com/~lilypond/Documentation/contributor.pdf

The "X" in "-jX" and "CPU_COUNT=X" is what is being slanted
with @var.

Actually, the problem is a little more interesting than
you're implying.  The slanted type is still monospace, and
the slanted characters occupy the same space as the
non-slanted ones...  But space is being added to the right
of each @var block.  Here's a file to demonstrate:

____________________


Lines 1 and 3 are reference lines with no formatting.  All
four lines have the same number of characters.  The vertical
bars (|) at the end of each line should all line up.  Line 2
has one @code{@@var} block; line 4 has 20 @code{@@var}
blocks.  Clearly, the slanted characters are not any wider
than normal.  Instead, it seems that some extra (unwanted)
space is being added to the right of each @code{@@var}
block.  Using @code{@@emph} produces the same results.

@example
1) 123456789012345678901234567890123456789 |
2) @var{123456789012345678901234567890123456789} |
3) 1 3 5 7 9 1 3 5 7 9 1 3 5 7 9 1 3 5 7 9 |
4) @var{1} @var{3} @var{5} @var{7} @var{9}@
@var{1} @var{3} @var{5} @var{7} @var{9}@
@var{1} @var{3} @var{5} @var{7} @var{9}@
@var{1} @var{3} @var{5} @var{7} @var{9} |
@end example

____________________


The @kbd command behaves as you suggest, so I suppose I can
use that instead.  But do you agree that the extra space
with @var and @emph is undesirable?  Perhaps this is an
intentional feature to give some "breathing room" to
italicized words in non-monospace text.  If so, I propose
selectively disabling it for monospace blocks like @example,
@code, etc.

What do you think?

Thanks!
- Mark