Re: [drew.adams@oracle.com: RE: cannot find :enable in Elisp manualindex]

[Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>]

> In the long term, we could redesign Info format.  However, such a change
> takes years to put into place.
>
> Instead of doing this, perhaps it would be better to replace the format
> with a completely new format.
>
> I wonder if we could use some limited subset of HTML, so that Emacs
> could display it even though it doesn't really understand HTML.
> Meanwhile, any browser could also display it, and standalone Info
> could be a variant of a browser.

I think the best format for the Emacs Info reader is Texinfo XML.
Makeinfo already has the option `--xml' that generates output files in
Texinfo XML.  This format just maps Texinfo elements onto XML in an
easily readable and unambiguous way, thus preserving all Texinfo markup from
the source Texinfo files to the Info reader.

However, with all its advantages I doubt that this format will replace
the old plain Info format soon.  But in the long term, perhaps, yes.
The main obstacle to adopting this format is the lack of its support
in the Emacs Info reader.  Recently I started writing a package
that provides it.  I'll post code later to this list for review
in a separate mail.

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/