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Re: (q.v.) in the emacs manual
From: |
Jean-Christophe Helary |
Subject: |
Re: (q.v.) in the emacs manual |
Date: |
Sun, 12 Jan 2020 20:25:41 +0900 |
Gavin,
Thank you for the feedback.
> On 2020/01/12, at 20:01, Gavin Smith <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Jan 12, 2020 at 01:54:52PM +0900, Jean-Christophe Helary wrote:
>> The glossary in the emacs manual has lots of (q.v.) to "refer" to other
>> items in the glossary. Such references are not handled as hypertext links.
>> They are just plain strings that require the user to manually search for the
>> corresponding term.
>>
>> Considering that texinfo only has 3 types of cross references and that none
>> of them fits the requirements of "q.v." (i.e., just a link, no "strings"
>> attached, no page number added, etc.) my idea is that the manual authors
>> simply preferred to resort to this visual reference (just write "q.v.") and
>> let the user find the reference manually rather than trying to create a
>> solution in texinfo.
>>
>> I found 2 q.v. in the Elisp Reference, 134 in the Emacs manual.
>>
>> I tried using @ref and here is what I get:
>
> There isn't any way to get what you want with a simple use of an
> existing Texinfo command. The difficulty is creating a functional
> cross-reference in all of the output formats.
I understand. I was mostly trying to see what was the result in the various
formats.
>> PDF:
>> Aborting means getting out of a [recursive editing], page 592.
>>
>> I get the extra ", page 592" where I'd just be happy with "[recursive
>> editing]" or even "recursive editing (q.v.)".
>
> The "page 592" is for if the manual is printed. I'm not sure about
> adding "(q.v.)" automatically.
Currently, the PDF only has "Setting the mark (q.v.) at a position in the text
also activates it." so I guess that would be good enough for the PDF output to
reproduce that.
>> HTML:
>> Aborting means getting out of a recursive edit.
>>
>> Where "recursive edit" is a link to the anchor I added to "Recursive Editing
>> Level". The HTML output is perfect.
>>
>> terminal INFO:
>> Aborting means getting out of a *note recursive edit: recursive
>> editing.
>>
>> I don't need the "*note" and the ":recursive editing". The link is
>> sufficient.
>
> The extra text is needed to mark it as a link in the info format.
I see.
>> GUI Emacs INFO:
>> Aborting means getting out of a see recursive edit
>> .
>>
>> I don't need the "see" and it looks like there is an extra space before the
>> period.
>
> It's not reliable for Emacs to add a "see" before the link.
Ok.
>> "quod vide" is "used to direct a reader to another part of a book or article
>> for further information." (Oxford Dictionary of English). It seems perfectly
>> relevant to have such parts handled as short links in Texinfo.
>>
>> I've been looking at the texinfo.tex file to see if I could do something
>> there. Is that the right place to do that ?
>
> If you were to implement a new Texinfo command it would be in
> texinfo.tex as well as in texi2any. I'd suggest doing something with
> Texinfo conditionals and macros to define a macro differently for
> different output formats, e.g.
>
> @iftex
> @macro plainref{ref}
> \ref\
> @end macro
> @end iftex
>
> and so on.
Thank you. I guess that will give me a good reason to start the "TeX book" :)
Jean-Christophe Helary
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http://mac4translators.blogspot.com @brandelune