From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Miles Bader Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: terminal escapes in Info files? Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 18:41:30 -0500 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <20031028234130.GA567@fencepost> References: <200310282006.h9SK64m06237@f7.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1067385277 9752 80.91.224.253 (28 Oct 2003 23:54:37 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 23:54:37 +0000 (UTC) Cc: eliz@elta.co.il, dirt@gtk.org, monnier@IRO.UMontreal.CA, rms@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Wed Oct 29 00:54:34 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AEdfW-0004Py-00 for ; Wed, 29 Oct 2003 00:54:34 +0100 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AEdfW-00015b-00 for ; Wed, 29 Oct 2003 00:54:34 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AEdf0-0001ed-AV for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Tue, 28 Oct 2003 18:54:02 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.24) id 1AEdeh-0001dh-3S for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 28 Oct 2003 18:53:43 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.24) id 1AEdbK-0008Ja-49 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 28 Oct 2003 18:50:46 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.164] (helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AEdY1-0006Tb-MR for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 28 Oct 2003 18:46:49 -0500 Original-Received: from miles by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.24) id 1AEdSs-0001Xy-5a; Tue, 28 Oct 2003 18:41:30 -0500 Original-To: Karl Berry Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200310282006.h9SK64m06237@f7.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.28i Blat: Foop X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 Precedence: list List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:17530 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:17530 On Tue, Oct 28, 2003 at 03:06:04PM -0500, Karl Berry wrote: > But > in any case, I definitely wouldn't bother doing this. Instead, I'd just > tell people to use lynx or emacs-w3 or whatever. I've never really seen > the point of standalone info in the first place, as I've mentioned before. > But some people like it, so fine. The reasons seem obvious, because the info program is optimized for browsing info files -- it includes things like index access, full-document search (without requiring the whole document to be on one node), etc. Even if we suddenly switched over to using html (or something) for info, we _shouldn't_ just use the current html backend, we should use certain conventions to encode extra information that the html-info reader can use to provide the various extra functions that make info so useful. IOW, html is the low-level formatting language used, but that doesn't mean that it's `just html'; it might be readable by a normal web browser, but you'd lose the extra functionality in that case. [Of course, it could be that the quickest way to make an `html-info' program would be to enhance an existing web browser like lynx (well except that lynx is fairly crappy, maybe use `links' instead).] -Miles -- P.S. All information contained in the above letter is false, for reasons of military security.