Re: Changes to Texinfo DTD

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

Oliver Scholz <epameinondas@gmx.de> wrote

    It seems to me that we are talking about entirely different
    things. I wrote under the assumption that a small and lightweight
    standalone info reader that works on a console is necessary.

Indeed, there are different issues.  One is rendering Texinfo into a
surface expression which a display program can handle as efficiently
as Info.  The second is providing such a display program, or several
of them.

If my understanding is correct, Nic Ferrier is proposing a standard
for an XML format that is a moderate extension of the current XML
format produced by makeinfo.

Also, if I understand correctly, he thinks that the new XML format
will enable existing browsers such as Mozilla to be as efficient as
the current Info mode in Emacs.  And, in addition, with the use of an
appropriate CGI on the Web servers, people will be able to read Info
documents over a slow connection as well as they can read Info on a
local machine.

As Karl Eichwalder <ke@gnu.franken.de> said

    yelp, the GNOME help browser, works directly with XML files
    conforming to a DocBook subset - it starts a little bit slow, be
    warned.

This is good news, since it means that not too much work will be
needed to create a decent renderer for a surface expression of
Texinfo.

Put another way, Info is designed for a fast connection between the
program doing the rendering and the file serving the Info file.  But
HTML is designed for a slow connection between the program doing the
rendering and the Web server providing the HTML file.

As far as I know, the current HTML produced by `makeinfo --html'
permits search/navigation only within a single HTML `page' or file,
not within a document spread over multiple files, as with Info.  So
you need to create HTML documents using the `--no-split' option, which
means as a practical matter, that HTML works quickly only in the same
circumstance as Info, namely that there be a fast connection between
the program doing the rendering and the file server.

The goal is to produce an XML output that not only overcomes the
disadvantages of HTML and Info, but goes ahead of them.

So, to return to Oliver's comment:

    ... I wrote under the assumption that a small and lightweight
    standalone info reader that works on a console is necessary.

Yes, this is necessary, as one of the various display programs that
the new XML could use.  

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