Re: New files url.texi and org.texi

[Robert J. Chassell]

Dave Love <address@hidden> wrote,

    Of course, but I've no idea why that means you shouldn't use
    @{x,px,}ref.  I'm pretty sure I confirmed with rms that external
    references should use the five-arg version of the @*ref commands
    when I was linking the extra manuals from the Emacs manual.

Yes, that is how you are supposed to do it.  After all, someone else,
a user perhaps, may print a hard copy.

    (I assume @inforef was intended for stuff that wasn't produced
    from Texinfo source.)

That was a major purpose in the 1980s, when Texinfo was just being
invented.  At that time, most Info files were written directly, rather
than be produced as one of the surface expressions of a Texinfo deep
representation.

Nowadays, some people try to second guess those who read their work.
They refer to what is supposed to be readily available via an
@inforef, forgetting that a reader might have a printed surface
expression at hand and prefer that.  Or that someone might want to
print and hand out a copy to tell others about Emacs ....  The Emacs
FAQ is especially egregious.

Also, as Eli Zaretskii says

    @inforef exists for those situations where you, for some reason,
    want to point to the Info manual .... ... it's possible that only
    an Info version contains some text ... that was in @address@hidden
    ifinfo ....

As far as I can see, nowadays, @inforef should be devalued and people
encouraged to use @{x,px,}ref.  The Texinfo manual should be clarified
to explain its historical origins, its occasional contemporary use,
and why it does not fit a `single deep representation/multiple surface
expressions' format.

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                         
    address@hidden                         GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  http://www.teak.cc