help-texinfo
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [help-texinfo] attribute ‘number’


From: Gavin Smith
Subject: Re: [help-texinfo] attribute ‘number’
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2015 16:36:34 +0000

On 1 March 2015 at 11:42, Thien-Thi Nguyen <address@hidden> wrote:
> I see the source (also in Parser.pm) of that subroutine is:
>
>  # return true if effect of global commands should be ignored.
>  sub _ignore_global_commands($)
>  {
>    my $self = shift;
>    return !$self->{'expanded_formats_stack'}->[-1];
>  }
>
> but before i wade in fully, i'll just ask quickly here: What
> must the user do (in terms of command-line options) to affect
> the ‘expanded_formats_stack’?

My understanding is that this is used to ignore some commands, such as
index commands, and other commands that record information that is not
local to where the command occurred, like "@setfilename". This is in
effect while inside a "raw formatter command", like @html, to include
raw HTML in a Texinfo file. Presumably there is still some Texinfo
parsing still being done while inside these commands, though.

If you see later after the code you posted in _enter_index_entry,
there is also a check on _ignore_global_commands to check whether to
save the index entry in an index. It is always stored under the
'index_entry' 'extra' value. I haven't investigated the purpose of
this, or indeed what using e.g. "@cindex" within "@html" should mean.
However, this will not make the index entry show up in the indices
when they are output with @printindex.

> (I'm trying to figure out what
> the IXIN stance towards attribute ‘number’ should be: ignore,
> require, support but not require.  I didn't find any mention of
> ‘number’ in the NEWS file, although i did find address@hidden number’ in
> node "Customizing Output File Names" in doc/texi2oldapi.texi,
> which seems obsolete or on its way to being so...)

I'd suggest not adding data to the output formats unless there is a
real use for it. Otherwise it is a burden on the other code in
texi2any/makeinfo to pass along the information required to output
this information. I don't know what the "number" attribute is used for
in the XML output, but I don't know what the XML output as a whole is
used for anyway.


The use of the 'expanded_formats_stack' in the Parser.pm module is not
very related to the question of whether a "number" attribute is
needed. A more important question would be what to do with index
commands within blocks like @html where they don't lead to an index
entry. My first reaction would be to ignore them, because I can't
think of a use for them off the top of my head, although there is
always a chance there is one I've missed.



reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]