Re: @macro expansion bug

[Eli Zaretskii]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2001, Werner LEMBERG wrote:

> The problem is not texi2dvi, but `makeinfo -E': It doesn't expand a
> user-defined macro in @deffn.

This is a known problem, and it is unlikely to be fixed without either
a complete rewrite of makeinfo or an incompatible change in the syntax of 
@deffn and friends.  The following comment (from the function 
defun_internal in the defun.c file from Texinfo sources) explains why:
                                                                                
    /* The @def.. line is the only place in Texinfo where you are
       allowed to use unquoted braces that don't delimit arguments of
       a command or a macro; in any other place it will trigger an
       error message from the reader loop.  The special handling of
       this case inside `args_from_string' is an extra special hack
       which allows this.  The side effect is that if we try to expand
       the rest of the line below, the recursive reader loop will
       signal an error if there are brace-delimited arguments on that line.

       The best solution to this would be to change the syntax of
       @def.. commands so that it doesn't violate Texinfo's own rules.
       But it's probably too late for this now, as it will break a lot
       of existing manuals.

       Unfortunately, this means that you can't call macros, use @value, etc.
       inside @def.. commands, sigh.  */
    get_rest_of_line (0, &line);

The zero as the first argument in the call to get_rest_of_line is the 
reason why macros (and other @-commands) are not expanded inside @deffn 
directives.