Reading Texinfo files

Reading Texinfo files

[RD]

I downloaded the elisp manual Texinfo files to my Windows XP machine, 
but I don't know how to read them.

They are sitting in their own directory.

I downloaded the Texinfo "Complete package, except sources" from 
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/texinfo.htm, but that produces 
only a bunch of documents, no executable.

How do I read the manuals?  Do I copy them to the emacs "info" 
subdirectory, and then "Browse manuals with info" from the "Help" menu? 
  Is there a Texinfo reader somewhere?

Regards,
Bob

Re: Reading Texinfo files

[Burton Samograd]

RD <rjjd@localnet.com> writes:

> I downloaded the elisp manual Texinfo files to my Windows XP machine,
> but I don't know how to read them.
>
> They are sitting in their own directory.
>
> I downloaded the Texinfo "Complete package, except sources" from
> http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/texinfo.htm, but that
> produces only a bunch of documents, no executable.
>
> How do I read the manuals?  Do I copy them to the emacs "info"
> subdirectory, and then "Browse manuals with info" from the "Help"
> menu? Is there a Texinfo reader somewhere?

Yes, you can copy them into the emacs info directory, but you then
have to add them to a 'dir' file in there, which looks like this:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the file .../info/dir, which contains the
topmost node of the Info hierarchy, called (dir)Top.
The first time you invoke Info you start off looking at this node.

File: dir,	Node: Top	This is the top of the INFO tree

  This (the Directory node) gives a menu of major topics.
  Typing "q" exits, "?" lists all Info commands, "d" returns here,
  "h" gives a primer for first-timers,
  "mEmacs<Return>" visits the Emacs manual, etc.

  In Emacs, you can click mouse button 2 on a menu item or cross reference
  to select it.

* Menu:

Texinfo documentation system
* Info: (info).         How to use the documentation browsing system.
* Texi2HTML: (texi2html).  Texinfo to HTML Converter.
* Texinfo: (texinfo).           The GNU documentation format.
* fftw3: (fftw3).	FFTW User's Manual.
* info standalone: (info-stnd).            Read Info documents without Emacs.
* infokey: (info-stnd)Invoking infokey.    Compile Info customizations.
* install-info: (texinfo)Invoking install-info. Update info/dir entries.
* makeinfo: (texinfo)Invoking makeinfo.         Translate Texinfo source.
* texi2dvi: (texinfo)Format with texi2dvi.      Print Texinfo documents.
* texi2pdf: (texinfo)PDF Output.                PDF output for Texinfo.
* texindex: (texinfo)Format with tex/texindex.  Sort Texinfo index files.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

You put the entries you have copied in in the format like at the
bottom of the example.  Each line is a *, the name of the topic and
then the file name in the parenthesis.  After that, you will be able
to hit C-h i, or M-x info to open up the emacs info viewer and read
the info files.  

There is also a command 'install-info' that might come with texinfo,
but I doubt it would work under windows, but it does the copying and
dir file editing for you if it works.

You can also get a standalone info program with cygwin, but you need
to do the same installation procedure as for emacs.

Hope this helps.

-- 
burton samograd					kruhft .at. gmail
kruhft.blogspot.com	www.myspace.com/kruhft	metashell.blogspot.com

Re: Reading Texinfo files

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: RD <rjjd@localnet.com>
> Date: Sun, 14 May 2006 21:28:54 -0400
> 
> I downloaded the elisp manual Texinfo files to my Windows XP machine, 
> but I don't know how to read them.

You need to convert them to Info files first.

Btw, where did you find the Texinfo sources of the ELisp manual?
Usually, the same place has the manual already converted to Info.
These Info files are called `elisp', `elisp-1', `elisp-2', etc.

> I downloaded the Texinfo "Complete package, except sources" from 
> http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/texinfo.htm, but that produces 
> only a bunch of documents, no executable.

In that case, you downloaded a wrong zip.  You need
texinfo-4.8-bin.zip, which does include executables.  The executable
you are looking for is makeinfo.exe.

> How do I read the manuals?  Do I copy them to the emacs "info" 
> subdirectory, and then "Browse manuals with info" from the "Help" menu? 

No.  If indeed you don't have the elisp-* Info files, then, after
installing texinfo-4.8-bin.zip, go to the directory where you unzipped
the ELisp Texinfo sources, and type this command from the Command
Prompt window:

    makeinfo elisp.texi

This should run for a few seconds and produce the elisp-* files.  Copy
those files to the Emacs's `info' directory, and then they will be
available from within Emacs.

Re: Reading Texinfo files

[RD]

Thanks!  Your advice closed the gap.

I got elisp-manual-21-2.8.tar.gz from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/, 
which contains the elisp files (elisp, 48 elisp-N files, and a bunch of 
other elisp.xxx files).  I copied them all to info\, and added this to dir:
* LISP: (elisp).	   elisp documentation...

Regards, Bob