[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #35187] the "help" command displays truncated help (words missing, etc)

[Mark Messer]

Follow-up Comment #13, bug #35187 (project octave):

In both Windows and Linux, makeinfo -- version reports 4.13 when invoked from
the shell. In both Windows and Linux, I get this from Octave.
<textarea class="verbatim" readonly="readonly" rows="9" cols="80">
    octave:1> system("makeinfo --version")
    makeinfo (GNU texinfo) 4.13
</textarea>

It is very odd that on your system the older version 4.7 makeinfo works better
than 4.13, at least for Octave's use. 

---
I tried your test, modified to fit my environment, by typing these commands
into the terminal window. 
<textarea class="verbatim" readonly="readonly" rows="9" cols="80">
   
path=C:OctaveOctave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2Octave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2msys;C:OctaveOctave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2Octave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2mingw32;%path%
    set LANG=us
    set CPPFLAGS=-IC:include -IC:mingw/include
    cd C:OctaveOctave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2Octave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2
    start C:OctaveOctave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2Octave3.4.3_gcc4.5.2binoctave --eval
"PS1('octave:#%gt;')" --persist
</textarea>

Note that I removed the leading slash from the paths in CPPFLAGS and added a
cd command. I tried this again with a backslash in the path. Any way I try it,
"help inv" still produces garbled text. 

---
makeinfo is part of the GNU texinfo project at
http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo. 

Browsing the source code at
http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/texinfo/texinfo/, I see the README file for
makeinfo says 
<textarea class="verbatim" readonly="readonly" rows="9" cols="80">
   As of Texinfo 5.0, this C implementation of makeinfo has been replaced
   by a Perl implementation; see ../texi2html.
</textarea>

On the download page (http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/), the latest release of
texinfo/makeinfo/texi2html is version 4.13a, from 2008. I do not see a version
5.0 release. 

Even so, the project is being maintained. The most recent entry in the texinfo
changelog is 7 days old. The most recent changes to makeinfo and texi2html are
9 months old. According to the texi2html NEWS file dated 1/12/2012, 
<textarea class="verbatim" readonly="readonly" rows="9" cols="80">
    * texi2any is a new generic converter that can produce all supported
      output formats, both those from texi2dvi (PDF/DVI) and from makeinfo
      (Info/HTML/etc.).  With this release, texi2any, makeinfo, and
      texi2html are all essentially the same program with different
      defaults.

      The new implementation is in Perl (originally the texi2html program).
      It both replaces and is intended to be (for all practical purposes)
      upward-compatible with the C makeinfo.  It has many new features not
      in the C makeinfo.  For example, cross-manual references are now fully
      supported, and extensive customization of the HTML output is possible.
      See xxx in the manual for more about this reimplementation.
  
      The new program is, unfortunately, noticeably slower at present than
      the C program was.  We hope all the many improvements make the change
      worthwhile nevertheless.
</textarea>

I will try a test with the most recent source code. If that does not work, I
will file a bug report to the texinfo project referencing this Octave bug. 


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