Re: with HTML output, @minus{} is converted to a hyphen instead of a real minus character

[Gavin Smith]

On Wed, Oct 12, 2022 at 09:26:43PM +0200, Patrice Dumas wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 12, 2022 at 01:46:28PM +0200, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> > BTW, I thought that --enable-encoding was the default. But after,
> > testing, it isn't. The makeinfo(1) man page should be clarified.
> > Instead of
> > 
> >        --disable-encoding
> >               do not output accented and special characters in Info output
> >               based on @documentencoding.
> > 
> >        --enable-encoding
> >               override --disable-encoding (default).
> 
> The default and effect depends on the output format.  In the upcoming
> release, this is now:
> 
>       --disable-encoding      do not output accented and special characters
>                                 in Info output based on document encoding.
>       --enable-encoding       based on document encoding, output accented
>                                 characters in XML-based output as well as
>                                 special characters in HTML instead of

I find this confusing as the two options do not appear to be opposites
and affect different output formats.  The user has to understand the
--disable-encoding/--enable-encoding distinction at the same time
as the Info/XML/HTML distinction.  I understand why this is as the
default setting is different for the different output formats but it looks
wrong unless you work it out.

The existing draft of the manual is contradictory.  Node "Invoking texi2any":

‘--enable-encoding’
‘--disable-encoding’
     By default, or with ‘--enable-encoding’, output accented and
     special characters in Info and plain text output based on the
     document encoding.  With ‘--disable-encoding’, 7-bit ASCII
     transliterations are output.

     By default, or with ‘--disable-encoding’, output accented and
     special characters in HTML, TexinfoXML and DocBook using XML
     entities.  With ‘--enable-encoding’, output accented characters in
     HTML, TexinfoXML and DocBook output and special characters in HTML
     output based on the document encoding.  *Note @documentencoding::,
     and *note Inserting Accents::.

This appears to state that both --enable-encoding and --disable-encoding
are the default.  I guess that it means that --enable-encoding is
the default for Info and plaintext output, likewise --disable-encoding
for HTML etc.  If that's the case, we need to reword this.

I generally do not have a good feeling about ENABLE_ENCODING and I remember
feeling confused whenever I encountered this in the source code.  It is
not like it is a simple feature switch to "turn the new encoding feature"
on, as it might imply.  Perhaps there is a better name for it or it could
be split into more than one customization variable - one for Info, one for
HTML/XML.