info jumps to wrong reference

[Bruno Haible]

Hi,

Here is a case where 'info' displays the wrong page when the user clicks on
a line containing a reference (hyperlink).

Look at texinfo-4.8's own manual: It has these lines

@item @@address@hidden@address@hidden
Indicate the name of a file.
@xref{file,,@code{@@file}}.

@item @@address@hidden@address@hidden
Indicate the name of a command.
@xref{command,,@code{@@command}}.

The info file was installed in 4 pieces:
$ ls -l /packages/gnu/info/texinfo*
-rw-r--r--    1 bin      bin         11240 2005-01-08 00:10 
/packages/gnu/info/texinfo
-rw-r--r--    1 bin      bin        300975 2005-01-08 00:10 
/packages/gnu/info/texinfo-1
-rw-r--r--    1 bin      bin        301134 2005-01-08 00:10 
/packages/gnu/info/texinfo-2
-rw-r--r--    1 bin      bin        159458 2005-01-08 00:10 
/packages/gnu/info/texinfo-3

In Emacs 22, the navigation works fine:
$ emacs
M-x info
Click on "Texinfo: (texinfo).           The GNU documentation format."
Click on "Useful Highlighting::         Highlighting provides useful 
information."

In
address@hidden'
     Indicate the name of a command.  *Note address@hidden': command.
click on the address@hidden' link. You get to the page with title
  9.1.10 address@hidden'{COMMAND-NAME}


In info 4.8, the navigation does not work:

$ info -f /packages/gnu/info/texinfo
Click on "Useful Highlighting::         Highlighting provides useful 
information."

In

address@hidden'
     Indicate the name of a command.  *Note address@hidden': command.

put the cursor on the beginning of the line containing the note and press
Return. You get to the page with title
  9.1.9 address@hidden'{FILE-NAME}

It worked in info-4.0, info-4.2, info-4.3, info-4.5, and is broken in
info-4.6, info-4.7, info-4.8. The NEWS file mentions this:

* info:
  . RET now goes to the nearest xref (rather like Emacs Info),
    instead of the next xref starting on the current line.

I don't understand two things about this:
  - When in Emacs 22 info mode, I put the cursor at the beginning of the
    line containing the note and press Return, it doesn't jump; instead it
    shows a message in the status line:
      Point neither on reference nor in menu item description
  - What is the distance (metric) that 'info' considers? Between the
    @file reference and the point there are two lines (including a blank
    line - paragraph separator, no?), whereas the between the @command
    reference there are 7 words but no linebreak.

info should IMO consider the number of linebreaks and/or the number of
blank lines when measuring the distance between the cursor point and two
references. Otherwise, as you can see in this example, it's counter-intuitive.

$ info --version
info (GNU texinfo) 4.8
...

Bruno