Re: pxref in texinfo export

[Jonathan Leech-Pepin <jonathan.leechpepin@gmail.com>]

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Hello,

On 25 February 2013 14:01, Subhan Tindall <subhan.tindall@rentrakmail.com>wrote:

> The point being that compiling .texinfo source into an Info file
> treats references differently. For example:
> (@pxref{my_node_name}).  will compile just fine.
> (@ref{my_node_name}). will not.


Both work perfectly fine for me.
makeinfo (GNU texinfo) 5.0


> There are also differences in case
> (see v. See, note v. Note), and differences in output by ref type
> depending on target output of file (info, DVI, HTML,...). For example,
> @pxref generates different punctuation for typeset v. info files, @ref
> does not generate a 'See ' in printed material while @xref does, etc.
>
> Although the differences are subtle, they really are not equivalent
> and should not be treated as such.
>

With a slight amount of work on the user's part, they can be made
functionally equivalent on export.

Using the two attached minimal .texi files (good-ref.texi is using
@xref/@pxref as is preferred while ref.texi is using @ref with
appropriate See/see added in the text) and disregarding filename
differences (since they are noted in the info output) I get the
following differences:

> makeinfo --html --no-split good-ref.texi ref.texi
0 Diffs

> makeinfo --docbook --no-split good-ref.texi ref.texi
Filename ID appears in diff

> makeinfo --xml --no-split good-ref.texi ref.texi
Filename difference.

Links are different since TexinfoML does still distinguish xref/pxref
and ref in how they create the links.

> makeinfo --no-split good-ref.texi ref.texi

The info file does show the expected differences between the two
documents, notably that the "@xref{}" becomes "*Note" while the
equivalent "See @ref{}" becomes "See *note" with @pxref{}->*note vs
see @ref{} -> see *note.

However once they are viewed within the *info* buffer (C-u C-h i
good-ref.info/ref-only.info) the lines in question are visually
identical since *Note becomes "See" and *note becomes "see" if there
is not already "see" present.

I will not disagree that @ref, @pxref and @xref are subtly different,
however with slight user intervention @ref can be used in the same
above locations by simply replacing:

@xref{}  -> "See @ref{}"
@pxref{} -> "see @ref{}"

I had to compare these possible outcomes when working on the texinfo
exporter.  Since links are parsed before being included in their
paragraphs, I did not have a way to obtain context and therefore
attempt to guess (and be successful) at which type of reference was
intended by a link in Org.  Restricting it to @ref{} in all cases,
even if it added a slight burden to the user (4 additional characters
to type in Org) if they wanted to emulate @xref or @pxref was in my
opinion the best choice.

Regards,

--
Jon

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