Re: [help-texinfo] Problem with macros in displays

[Laurence Finston]

> Did you try putting the conditional outside the macro?  As in:
[...]
> 
> I am kind of surprised that conditionals worked inside the @macro at all.

I may have tried conditionals outside macros in the past, I don't remember. 
I've got lots of macros with conditionals inside.

> 
> BTW, the predefined command @var is exactly for metasyntactic variables.

I use them when I refer to the arguments of functions.  It's supposed to look
like the Backus-Naur form in Knuth's books, so I need the angle braces and the
`\longrightarrow'.

> 
>     The problem is lots of erroneous line breaks.  However, they aren't
>     just at the ends of input lines.
> 
> If lines are long enough, they will get broken.  The only solution is to
> reduce the text on a line, or the font size.  @smalldisplay?

They're broken after every word, and there are multiple blank lines between
them.

> 
>     The text in question isn't a quotation, and I'd like it to be in a
display.
> 
> The command names are not strict.  Just pretend they are named foo and
> bar instead :).

That would be a problem when grepping for quotations or displays.
But if I have to, I will.  It's not such a big problem.

> 
>     If you want to see what I come up with for any reason, I'll be happy
>     to post it to one or both of these lists,
> 
> Always interested in how people are using Texinfo so yes, please send
> away.

My Texinfo files are all in 
http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-in/viewcvs/3dldf/3dldf/Group/
DOC/TEXINFO/

The macro definitions are in `3DLDF.texi', which currently only includes
`vardecls.texi'.  `texi2dvi' currently only generates only 8 pages.  I don't
have access to computer with TeX or Texinfo at the moment, so I can't send a 
dvi file.  Sorry.

> 
>     By the way, which is the appropriate list for this discussion,
>     `bug-texinfo' or `help-texinfo'?
> 
> In this case, either would be fine.  

I just didn't want everyone to have to read my postings twice.

> 
> BTW, somehow I had thought you hadn't converted the 3DLDF manual to
> Texinfo, because of all the math?  (Which Texinfo cannot handle easily.)
> But I guess you have now?  Congratulations, that must have been a lot of
> work.

I always used Texinfo for the 3DLDF manual.   The first edition (the one you
evaluated) could only be used for generating dvi output, though.  rms asked
that I make it work for the other output formats, and I did so shortly after
3DLDF was dubbed a GNU package.  It took me a month or two, I don't remember
exactly.  It was a lot of work, but it was worth it.
I prefer the TeX output, but a lot of people seem to prefer the HTML version.

Laurence