bug#19291: 25.0.50; Command that returns URL to current Info node on the web

bug#19291: 25.0.50; Command that returns URL to current Info node on the web

[Drew Adams]

This is an enhancement request.  See this emacs-devel post and its
(short) followup:

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2014-12/msg00624.html

The idea is this:

The Emacs, Elisp, and Emacs Lisp Intro manuals are mirrored by GNU on
the web, and one version of the manuals uses a separate HTML page for
each Info node.

The request is to have an Info-mode Emacs command that returns the URL
of the GNU web page that corresponds to the current Info node.  For
example, if I am in (emacs) `Mark' and I invoke the command then it
returns the URL
"http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Mark.html".

Among other things, this would facilitate pointing users from email or
from other web pages (e.g., Stack Exchange Q&A) to a particular manual
page on the web.

See also David Kastrup's replies to this part of the emacs-devel thread,
regarding TexInfo.

In GNU Emacs 25.0.50.1 (i686-pc-mingw32)
 of 2014-10-20 on LEG570
Bzr revision: 118168 rgm@gnu.org-20141020195941-icp42t8ttcnud09g
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 6.1.7601
Configured using:
 `configure --enable-checking=yes,glyphs CPPFLAGS=-DGLYPH_DEBUG=1'

bug#19291: Additional info

[David Kastrup]

From a connected communication on bug-texinfo@gnu.org in a reply from
Karl Berry:

> This sort of thing is
> precisely why I already went to the trouble of creating and maintaining
> a mapping from texinfo manual names to web locations.  As you probably
> know.  (File htmlxref.cnf on ftp.gnu.org:gnu/texinfo among other places.)

It would seem that such a file database would come in handy for
jump-starting this feature.

-- 
David Kastrup