Re: Notes-Mode package problem (was dir(Top) is in French ?!?)

[David Masterson <dsmasterson@gmail.com>]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> From: David Masterson <dsmasterson@gmail.com>
>> Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 22:33:07 -0700
>> 
>> > Found the problem!  I installed the notes-mode package and it has a
>> > "dir" file that is written in French.  ELPA added this package to the
>> > front of Info-directory-list and, so, this became the top of Info.
>> >
>> > Can someone fix Notes-Mode?
>
> Fixing Notes-Mode will not help you, see my other response in this
> thread.  Whenever install-info is run, it can install a localized
> version of these instructions.
>
>> By the way, this seems like a fundamental design problem with Info that
>> has been inherent in Info as far back as I can remember.  I believe I
>> ran into this same issue some 15+ years ago.  Basically, there should be
>> one dir-top file (that can be LANG localized) in Emacs and all other dir
>> files should be concatenated onto it.
>
> No, there could be many dir _files_ all over your system, but when
> Info starts, it concatenates them all into a single "dir" _node_,
> which includes all of the menus from all of the dir files.
>
> This is by design.

And that is basically what I'm proposing with one key change.  The
concatenated dir file has two parts:

1. The dir header describing what the Dir is and basics on how to use
Info.

2. The concatenated menu list of all the packages from all the dir files.

My suggestion is that #1 should be a separate file from the concatenated
dir files so that the above issue doesn't happen.  I'm not totally sure,
but what appears to me to have happened is that the Notes-Mode package
was generated with a dir file that had a header that was in French.
When I installed the package on my system, it got added to the front of
Info-directory-list and, thus, this dir file was the one to which all
other dir files was concatenated (with their headers removed).  So, my
Info dir suddenly became French.

By moving #1 to a separate Emacs-specific file, the header can be LANG
localized as appropriate.  All of the dir files (and processing thereof)
remains the same *except* that this (appropriately localized) dir-header
is prepended to the resulting dir file by install-info.  This also
potentially allows a user to enhance the header in his own fashion (if
he chooses) with his own dir-header by simply updating (say)
Info-dir-header-file.

I did a local mod to the dir file in the Notes-Mode package and my Info
went back to English.

-- 
David Masterson
Programmer At Large