From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Texinfo Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:48:40 +0900 Message-ID: <871vj2qig7.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1260503114 25663 80.91.229.12 (11 Dec 2009 03:45:14 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:45:14 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: bob@gnu.org (Robert J. Chassell) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Dec 11 04:45:07 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1NIwRG-0000uO-Jv for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:45:07 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:35147 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1NIwRG-00011H-4E for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:45:06 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1NIwRA-0000yf-GL for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:45:00 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1NIwR6-0000ur-Hp for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:45:00 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=52136 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1NIwR6-0000uk-Eh for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:44:56 -0500 Original-Received: from mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.223]:33421) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1NIwR2-0000r6-6Z; Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:44:52 -0500 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6FB5E1537B2; Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:44:47 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id CC9521A2639; Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:48:40 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: VM 8.0.12-devo-585 under 21.5 (beta29) "garbanzo" 1444e28f1a3d XEmacs Lucid (x86_64-unknown-linux) X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:118536 Archived-At: Robert J. Chassell writes: > Texinfo is not as sexy as HTML This really isn't a problem, because as you point out people can automatically transform to HTML. I don't know why people bring it up. > The format of Texinfo may be old, This is a problem for acceptance by developers, and so somewhat important. However, it should be possible to automatically convert (eg) reStructuredText to Texinfo as well as vice versa. (You might have to design an appropriate dialect of reST, but it's designed for that.) The real problem with Texinfo, however, is that it is a markup language whose translator is a *compiler*. This is not well suited to online resources, whether wikis or help facilities built into programs. Contribute a Texinfo interpreter to Python, and you might have an attractive proposition for the Bazaar developers. But without that, you would have to preprocess the Python source; it couldn't be used as written (if the help strings were in Texinfo). This is a nonstarter. I think a better alternative would be to keep Bazaar documentation in a dialect of reST (or other suitable structured text) and provide a docutils writer to produce Texinfo from that.