Re: @part command and docbook

[Aharon Robbins]

Hi Karl.

> So, Texinfo @parts do not map to Docbook.  Not surprising.  Such is
> life.  To get parts in your Docbook output, all I can think of is the
> useless "hack it in by hand" approach (e.g., throw comments into the
> source and post-process them to create the necessary <part>/related
> elements).  Sorry.

Actually, @docbook would mostly solve this. But I would need a way to
tell makeinfo "close off any open sections / chapters that you have, NOW".

Right now if I use @docbook, I'm getting:

        <part>
        introductory blah blah here

        </section>      <-------- these are from what came before the part
        </preface>

        <chapter> ... 
        </part>

> I created the Texinfo @part command as independent from the sectioning
> structure because it had to be that way for compatibility, etc.
> Creating a second kind of part command that *is* part of the sectioning
> structure sounds like an awful lot of work for no essential gain.

Suppose we don't include it in the structure and just add some commands
that are mostly "noise"?

        @partnum I
        @part Title For Part I
        ....
        @partend

texinfo.tex would print "Part I" using the argument to @partnum, and ignore
@partend.  makeinfo upon seeing @partnum or @part would close off whatever
is open and generate the right tags; @partend generates </part>.

That seems straightforward to me, doesn't break any backward compatibility,
and I hope doesn't impinge too much on the structure of the document or what
makeinfo has to do when generating docbook.

Worst case, I can live with the manual stuff. I prefer to have as much smarts
as possible in the tools instead of in hacked-together scripts.  And if DocBook
is to be supported, this would help.

And, since I'm asking, makeinfo should generate <partintro> ... </partintro>
tags around any material after the part title and the first <chapter>.

Once again, thanks for listening. I appreciate both that and the current,
much more advanced, state of DocBook generation in the texinfo tools.

Arnold