Re: Info definition line only starting with single hyphen?

[Patrice Dumas]

On Wed, Oct 02, 2024 at 07:06:36PM +0100, Gavin Smith wrote:
> I saw this line had been added to NEWS:
> 
> . Info:
>   . Output a single hyphen at the start of a definition line
> 
> This change was in commit 3ee7ac39a8 (dated 2024-07-06, applied 2024-09-29).
> 
> The effect of this change is to have one hyphen rather than two:
> 
> - -- Library Function: int foobar (int F---OO, float B--AR)
> + - Library Function: int foobar (int F---OO, float B--AR)
> 
> I'm concerned whether this change to Info output for definition
> commands is necessary.  Wouldn't it be better just to leave this output
> alone as people will be used to having it with two hyphens?  Was it ever
> only one hyphen in the past (e.g. with Texinfo 4.13, before the Perl
> rewrite)?

It is indeed not necessary and could very well be reverted, either by
using --- that will become --, or setting code style for the leading --.
I hesitated a lot about whether to discuss the change or not, but in the
end I did not as it seemed to me to fall in the non semantic changes
that we consider, in general to be ok.  I probably should have.

In any case, given what Eli found in the archive, I think that it is
better to revert.

-- 
Pat