Re: Info enhancements

[Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>]

"Robert J. Chassell" <bob@rattlesnake.com> writes:
>        As far as I can see, a better format would have the line number before
>        the description rather than after it, with the description indented 6
>
>    But then it would not follow the standard format for menus, i.e.,
>    <term>:<node name>.
>
> I must not have been clear.  The format I meant is:
>
>      * MENU-ENTRY-NAME: NODE-NAME.   LINE_NUMBER. DESCRIPTION
>
> instead of Dave Gillespie's
>
>      * MENU-ENTRY-NAME: NODE-NAME.   DESCRIPTION. LINE_NUMBER. 
>
> or the current
>
>      * MENU-ENTRY-NAME: NODE-NAME.   DESCRIPTION

I think that line numbers in index menus can distract users.
Even if newer versions of Info readers could hide them, they still
will be shown by older versions.

But what do you think about recording the locations of index entries
in the tag table?  For example:

^_
Tag Table:
Node: Top^?123
Ref: menu-entry-name^?12345

Then menu entries would have the following format:

     * menu-entry-name::               Description.

Another variant is to generate a separate tag name for every index type,
e.g.:

^_
Tag Table:
Node: Top^?123
findex: menu-entry-name^?12345
vindex: menu-entry-name^?23456
pindex: menu-entry-name^?34567
cindex: menu-entry-name^?45678

I hope this will not break older Info readers, but newer Info readers
might use this advantage and with index menus marked by a special tag
(e.g. the title "* Variable Index:", etc.) they can read corresponding
locations from the tag table.

The information about locations of index entries could be used by the
`i' command as well.  Note also than in the first variant where index
entries are treated as they were anchors (i.e. by generating a "Ref:"
tag in the tag table) the `g' command can replace the `i' command.

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

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