Re: Texinfo macros and m4

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello,

Karl Berry writes:
> 
> Patrice and I haven't had a chance to discuss this in detail yet, but at
> present it seems to me that the most robust plan would be to simply
> provide an option to run the document through m4 before Texinfo. 

I wouldn't be too happy if you went that way.  The in-band signaling
is terrible, we have a lot of experience from autoconf, not entirely
positive, on how complex it is for users to understand m4 quoting
issues well, and how it very complex to pass arbitrary inputs through
m4.  Any chance to get you to reconsider this decision?

Apologies for being ignorant of the principal issues you've had with
properly defining macros from within texinfo (possibly with a new API
that avoids issues from the present @macro): what makes this infeasible?
Pointers appreciated.

Thanks,
Ralf