Re: Changes to Texinfo DTD

[karl@freefriends.org (Karl Berry)]

    If XML is already there, then why do we discuss this issue at all?

I have no idea.  As far as I can see, the discussion is going in
circles.  We seem to be right back where we started a zillion messages ago.

If someone wants to write a NEW info reader in emacs, based on
makeinfo's xml output (which has existed for a couple of years, and is
being actively maintained), please do.

That is, as I understand it, the whole point -- allow Emacs on a bitmap
display to use nice fonts, rebreak paragraphs, and all that other good
stuff.  To do that, it needs a structure-based representation of the
Texinfo document.

And that is precisely what the XML output gives you, the structure,
unlike the Info (and DVI) output, which is virtually entirely physical.
(HTML is somewhere in between.)  Retrofitting structure into Info format
is going to end up being equivalent to the XML, except MUCH more painful
to define and deal with -- in my opinion, of course.  So I don't want to
spend time doing that.

And, the point is not to "replace" the current character-based info
reader, as rms, bob, I, and many others have said many times.  I can't
imagine why the two cannot peacefully coexist, and users will have the
choice.

Alternatively, Nic and Bob have already advanced a proposal to make Info
work better with web browsers.  So, a better-than-w3 web browser in
Emacs could achieve the same goal.  (By saying this, I know I risk a
rerun of the whole thread ...)