bug#68970: 30.0.50; Info.el: Info-url-alist should support format-sequence that encodes "Top" node as "index"

[Mekeor Melire <mekeor@posteo.de>]

2024-02-07 16:51 eliz@gnu.org:

> Sorry, I don't think I understand: "https://example.com/" stands for
> "https://example.com/index.html", AFAIK.  This is why %e produces an
> empty string for the Top node.  So why would users want to specify
> "https://example.com/%e.html" instead of just "https://example.com/%e"?
>
> IOW, I don't see why users will need to use the .html extension in the
> alist, it works without the extension.
>
> What am I missing?

Let's assume we have a manual with "Top" node as well as a node called
"Foo". Let's further assume the webserver is configured so that
example.com/Foo does not resolve to example.com/Foo.html but rather
results in "not found". This is why the user must choose to use
example.com/%e.html as URL-specification currently. But then they have
the problem that the "Top" node is translated to example.com/.html.

I suggested to add another format-sequence, %i, that translates the
"Top" node as "index". Thus, example.com/%i.html would translate to
example.com/index.html in case of "Top".

We could also instead provide a format-sequence, %s, that includes the
".html" suffix -- except in case of the "Top" node which would be
translated to the empty string. Thus, the user would use example.com/%s.
"Foo" would be translated to example.com/Foo.html; and "Top" would be
translated to "example.com/".