Re: terminal escapes in Info files?

["Robert J. Chassell" <bob@rattlesnake.com>]

"Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@xemacs.org> wrote

   .... But there is no reason why HTML produced by a documentation
   system shouldn't _require_ (and enforce, by automatically producing
   them from eg Texinfo source)

   <!-- sibling nodes happen to be in the same file -->
   <link rel="prev" "#prev_node"    -- standard in HTML 4.01 (sec 6.12) -- >
   <link rel="next" "#next_node"    -- standard in HTML 4.01 (sec 6.12) -- >
   <link rel="up"   "up_node.html"  -- a nonstandard link -- >
   <link rel="top"  "document.html" -- a nonstandard link -- >
   <link rel="dir"  "../index.html" -- a nonstandard link -- >

Yes, I agree that makeinfo with the `--html' option should produce
this (and the equivalents for the more usable case in which 
sibling nodes are in different files).

Then, we need to provide a Web browser in Emacs that can make use of
these nodes.  I would especially like to see a function called
`HTML-search' that provides the same capabilities as `Info-search'.

Also, as a practical matter, it would be good to tell people the
appropriate key bindings needed for Mozilla and its deriviatives,
Galeon and Firebird, for Konqueror, and for Lynx.  (It would be nice
to encourage the developers of these programs to provide a regexp
`HTML-search' capability for multi-page documents that are properly
written.)

   My guess is that HTML provides all the features needed to provide a
   target language isomorphic to Info, and it would be at most a couple
   days' work to port Emacs's Info reader to such a language.  

I still fail to understand why anyone would want to make the Info
markup language look like a subset of HTML or of an XML when Texinfo
already produces HTML and XML.  Does it not make more sense to upgrade
makinfo's HTML and XML output, and then upgrade Emacs Web browsers to
use that output?  (W3 mode needs upgrading anyhow; if implemented,
this proposal simply increases the need to upgrade W3 mode.
Hmmm.... while thinking about Web browsers, should W3M mode be changed
so that its display looks to someone able to use sight like the
display produced by Mozilla or Konqueror?)

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                         Rattlesnake Enterprises
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    http://www.teak.cc                             bob@rattlesnake.com