Re: Divergence in menu appearance between Emacs Info and standalone Info

[Luc Teirlinck <teirllm@dms.auburn.edu>]

Karl Berry wrote:

       in this case the
       differences are in numerous places in the node.  It may look very ugly
       to describe both alternatives.  Could you try?

   It would be better for someone who has actually used or programmed this
   feature to write at least the first draft.  I don't know any of the details.

   Luc, perhaps you make a first cut at changing info.texi, and then I'll
   review it?

I would be willing to help.  But does it make any sense to do this
right now?  We have not yet decided how either the Emacs or the
standalone versions are going to look like.  Would the first task at
hand not be to worry about those two questions?  Otherwise, we might
just keep rewriting the manual continuously, as we keep changing our
minds.  The relevant changes in the Emacs version of Info do not
appear in any released Emacs version and should (in my opinion) not
appear in any released Emacs version until we have made a decision on
how the Emacs version of Info is going to look.  It would be very bad
to just keep switching the behavior back and forth on the user, in as
far as released versions are concerned.  CVS users know (or should
know) that some features could change back and forth depending on the
unexpected problems that they turn out to cause.

In other words to me it would seem that the order should be:

1.  First decide how the Emacs version is going to look.

2.  Decide how the standalone version is going to look.

3.  Implement 1 and 2.

4.  Rewrite the documentation accordingly.

Is there any reason to do things in a different order, unless 3. is
scheduled for the extremely vague and extremely distant future?  I do
not believe implementation of 1. should be put off until then.
Implementation of 2. conceivably might, if nobody can find the time.
In that case, I would rewrite the manual based on current behavior of
the standalone version.

Sincerely,

Luc.