bug#13552: 24.3.50; glitch in Info formatting for cross reference

bug#13552: 24.3.50; glitch in Info formatting for cross reference

[Drew Adams]

(elisp) `The Mark' shows this to the user:
 
     If `shift-select-mode' is non-`nil' and the current command was
     invoked via shift translation (see shift-translation
     .), this function sets the mark and temporarily
     activates the region, unless the region was already temporarily
     activated in this way.  Otherwise, if the region has been activated
     temporarily, it deactivates the mark and restores the variable
     `transient-mark-mode' to its earlier value.
 
The problem is the visual newline between `shift-translation' and
`.'.  This is a no-no.
 
The actual text (which you see if you copy + paste) is this,
which is in fact filled properly:
 
     If `shift-select-mode' is non-`nil' and the current command was
     invoked via shift translation (*note shift-translation: Key
     Sequence Input.), this function sets the mark and temporarily
     activates the region, unless the region was already temporarily
     activated in this way.  Otherwise, if the region has been activated
     temporarily, it deactivates the mark and restores the variable
     `transient-mark-mode' to its earlier value.
 
A similar problem appears in the paragraph before that one:
 
     This function implements the "shift-selection" behavior of
     point-motion commands.  See Shift Selection(emacs)
     .  It is called automatically by the Emacs command loop
     whenever a command with a `^' character in its `interactive' spec
     is invoked, before the command itself is executed (*note ^:
     Interactive Codes.).
 
Again, the problem is the eliding of the text between `Shift Selection'
and `.'.  The actual text is this:
 
     This function implements the "shift-selection" behavior of
     point-motion commands.  *Note Shift Selection: (emacs)Shift
     Selection.  It is called automatically by the Emacs command loop
     whenever a command with a `^' character in its `interactive' spec
     is invoked, before the command itself is executed (*note ^:
     Interactive Codes.).

In GNU Emacs 24.3.50.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600)
 of 2013-01-22 on ODIEONE
Bzr revision: 111584 dmantipov@yandex.ru-20130122114800-5m9xn29kwf5n9nwx
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600
Configured using:
 `configure --with-gcc (4.7) --no-opt --enable-checking --cflags
 -IC:/Devel/emacs/build/include --ldflags -LC:/Devel/emacs/build/lib'
 

bug#13552: 24.3.50; glitch in Info formatting for cross reference

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:07:06 -0800
> 
> (elisp) `The Mark' shows this to the user:
>  
>      If `shift-select-mode' is non-`nil' and the current command was
>      invoked via shift translation (see shift-translation
>      .), this function sets the mark and temporarily
>      activates the region, unless the region was already temporarily
>      activated in this way.  Otherwise, if the region has been activated
>      temporarily, it deactivates the mark and restores the variable
>      `transient-mark-mode' to its earlier value.
>  
> The problem is the visual newline between `shift-translation' and
> `.'.  This is a no-no.

That's because what info.el does is put an invisible text property on
a part of the cross-reference that is deemed "unimportant".  You can
turn off this behavior by customizing Info-hide-node-references.

bug#13552: 24.3.50; glitch in Info formatting for cross reference

[Drew Adams]

> > (elisp) `The Mark' shows this to the user:
> >  
> >      If `shift-select-mode' is non-`nil' and the current command was
> >      invoked via shift translation (see shift-translation
> >      .), this function sets the mark and temporarily
> >      activates the region, unless the region was already temporarily
> >      activated in this way.  Otherwise, if the region has 
> >      been activated
> >      temporarily, it deactivates the mark and restores the variable
> >      `transient-mark-mode' to its earlier value.
> >  
> > The problem is the visual newline between `shift-translation' and
> > `.'.  This is a no-no.
> 
> That's because what info.el does is put an invisible text property on
> a part of the cross-reference that is deemed "unimportant".  You can
> turn off this behavior by customizing Info-hide-node-references.

Yes, I know.  That's the cause underlying the bug: incomplete implementation of
the prettying-up/hiding.

Pointing to the user option is a red herring wrt the bug, amounting to "if it
hurts don't do that".  But yes, workarounds for bugs, including turning off
bugged features are good to have.

I remind you of the proposal (with patch) to optionally let users highlight
`...' and "..." in Info.  It was rejected because there are a (very) few places
where a node has an extra " (e.g. ?"), which makes it not work perfectly for
those places.  Being able to turn off a feature that is not perfect is good, but
it does not mean that the feature works 100%.

That we have such hiding is a good thing.  I do not at all argue, as was decided
in the `...', "..." case, that the feature should not be in Emacs.

That we have a way to turn it off is also a good thing.  The bug is still there,
however.  I don't know how feasible/easy it is to fix.