From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: RE: [drew.adams@oracle.com: RE: cannot find :enable in Elisp manualindex] Date: Mon, 28 May 2007 21:01:52 -0700 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1180411431 10042 80.91.229.12 (29 May 2007 04:03:51 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 04:03:51 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: "Eli Zaretskii" , Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue May 29 06:03:49 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1Hssw1-0002Wm-9y for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 29 May 2007 06:03:49 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Hssw0-0005HO-UU for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 29 May 2007 00:03:48 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Hssvx-0005HJ-NC for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 29 May 2007 00:03:45 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Hssvw-0005H7-9Q for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 29 May 2007 00:03:45 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Hssvw-0005H4-6A for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 29 May 2007 00:03:44 -0400 Original-Received: from rgminet01.oracle.com ([148.87.113.118]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Hssvs-00068I-6O; Tue, 29 May 2007 00:03:40 -0400 Original-Received: from rgmgw3.us.oracle.com (rgmgw3.us.oracle.com [138.1.186.112]) by rgminet01.oracle.com (Switch-3.2.4/Switch-3.1.6) with ESMTP id l4T43Y22026649; Mon, 28 May 2007 22:03:34 -0600 Original-Received: from acsmt351.oracle.com (acsmt351.oracle.com [141.146.40.151]) by rgmgw3.us.oracle.com (Switch-3.2.4/Switch-3.1.7) with ESMTP id l4T3h067019049; Mon, 28 May 2007 22:03:33 -0600 Original-Received: from dhcp-amer-csvpn-gw1-141-144-65-122.vpn.oracle.com by acsmt350.oracle.com with ESMTP id 2737646941180411332; Mon, 28 May 2007 21:02:12 -0700 X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) In-Reply-To: Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3028 X-Whitelist: TRUE X-Whitelist: TRUE X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAAI= X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.4-2.6 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:71921 Archived-At: > > Would someone please DTRT, then ack? > > Is this even feasible? Index entries cannot include colons, it's a > limitation of the Info format. The Texinfo manual clearly says not to > use them. That's really too bad, if it's the case. Keywords are important things to put in an index (not to mention the fact that some languages to be documented might use colons in special ways). If this is really not feasible, then users are reduced to using search in Info to find a keyword such as :type, :display, or :enable - pretty primitive (but still far better than visiting the many "type", "display", "enable" etc. index entries). Is there no way to escape a colon somehow, so that Info does not interpret it? The Texinfo manual says that this limitation is because "a colon separates the menu entry name from the node name, so a colon in the entry name confuses Info." If there is no way to escape a colon - to let Info know when a colon doesn't indicate a menu + entry, then shouldn't there be? Analogy: In Framemaker, colons in index entries are used to create hierarchical entries, so, e.g., "foo:bar" produces an index entry "foo" with subentry "bar". You can nevertheless escape a colon with a backslash, so, e.g., "foo:bar\:toto" produces entry "foo" with subentry "bar:toto". I haven't used TeX/LaTeX/Texinfo for 20 years, but my memory of LaTeX and Tex, at least, is of something very powerful and flexible. I'm surprised if there is no such escape mechanism for Texinfo. Suggestion: If a user enters a colon at the `Info-index' prompt, print a message saying 1) that the colon is being ignored, and 2) you can, as an alternative, use search (`s' or `C-s') to search the manual for a term that contains a colon. IOW, let users know right away how to work around this limitation.