NetBSD/gnu/dist/texinfo/TODO
wiz ccaa2ac97b Import of texinfo-4.7, as prepared by texinfo2netbsd.
Changes since 4.6:

4.7 (9 April 2004)
* Language:
  . new commands @float, @caption, @shortcaption, @listoffloats for
    initial implementation of floating material (figures, tables, etc).
    Ironically, they do not yet actually float anywhere.
  . new commands @docbook, @ifdocbook, @ifnotdocbook for conditional Docbook.
  . new commands @ordf{} and @ordm{} for Spanish feminine/masculine ordinals.
  . new commands @deftypecv[x] for class variables in typed OO languages.
  . new command @registeredsymbol for the r-in-a-circle symbol.
  . new command @headitem to make a heading row in @multitable.
  . new command @LaTeX{} for the LaTeX logo.
  . new command @comma{} to avoid comma-parsing problems.
  . @url is now a synonym for @uref; new command @indicateurl has the
    old meaning of just displaying a url as text.
  . @quotation now accepts an optional argument for labelling the text
      as a `Note', `Tip', etc.
  . @defun (et al.) heading lines can now be continued with a lone @.
  . @acronym accepts an optional argument for the meaning of the acronym.
* makeinfo:
  . New environment variable TEXINFO_OUTPUT_FORMAT determines the output
    format at runtime, if no options are specified.
  . New option --plaintext, equivalent to --no-headers with Info output.
  . All outputs:
    - sections are numbered by default.
  . Info output:
    - punctuation is inserted after @pxref and @ref, if needed to make
      cross-references valid.
    - line numbers included in index menus, so Info readers can go to
      the exact line of an entry, not just a node.  Also in plaintext output.
    - ^@^H[index^@^H] cookie included in index menus, so Info readers
      can handle the ] etc. commands better.
  . HTML output:
    - new algorithm for cross-references to other manuals, for maximum
      portability and stability.
    - include node name in <title> with split output.
    - @multicolumn fractions become percentages.
    - entities used for bullets, quotes, dashes, and others.
    - index entries are links to the exact locations.
    - <h4> and <h5> used for @sub and @subsubsections again.
    - accented dotless i supported.
  . XML output: many new tags and structure to preserve more source features.
  . Docbook output:
    - upgraded DTD to Docbook XML 4.2, no longer using Docbook SGML.
    - improved translation in general, for instance:
    - line annotations and marked quotations.
* texi2dvi:
  . if available, use etex (pdfetex if --pdf) by default.
  . if the input file includes thumbpdf.sty (for LaTeX), then run thumbpdf.
  . more output if --debug.
* texinfo.tex:
  . @defun names are now printed in typewriter (instead of bold), and
    within the arguments, @var text is printed in slanted typewriter.
  . @tex code is executed inside a TeX group, so that any changes must
    be prefixed with \global (or the equivalent) to be effective.  (This
    change was actually made years ago, but never made it into the NEWS.)
* info:
  . new option --where (aka --location, -w) to report where an Info file
    would be found, instead of reading it.
  . by default, output ANSI terminal escape sequences as-is; new option
    --no-raw-escapes overrides this.
  . use the newly-generated index line numbers.
* Distribution:
  . new script gendocs.sh (not installed), for use by GNU maintainers in
    getting their manuals on the GNU web site.  Documented in
    maintain.texi (http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain_toc.html).
  . Most code uses ANSI C prototypes, to some extent.
  . New translation: nb.
  . automake 1.8.3, autoconf 2.59, gettext 0.14.1.
2004-07-12 23:26:33 +00:00

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Id: TODO,v 1.10 2004/03/27 00:31:21 karl Exp
This is the todo list for GNU Texinfo.
If you are interested in working on any of these, email bug-texinfo@gnu.org.
Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003,
2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation.
Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
notice and this notice are preserved.
* General:
- @euro{}.
- Support installation of manuals in different languages, along these lines:
. support a LINGUAS file or variable saying which subdirs LL in the
source to descend into (under doc/).
. within each subdir LL, install the info files into $infodir/LL,
and run install-info on $infodir/LL/dir.
. info (both emacs and standalone) should read $infodir/$LANG/dir
as the first dir file, and likewise read info files first from
$infodir/$LANG, before falling back to $infodir.
. consider ways to avoid installing images in both places.
In fact, images probably need to be installed in a subdir
$infodir/MANUAL/ in the first place, to avoid conflicts of having
the same image name in different manuals.
For a test case, see texinfo cvs, with its one translated manual
(info-fr.texi).
From Wojciech Polak.
- Monitor and improve the dir categories in existing manuals,
following the Free Software Directory categories. Much mail to
developers has already been sent, what's needed now is to check new
releases and make sure they are using the right categories.
See the util/dir-example in the Texinfo distribution for our current
recommended categories.
For background, see the thread (which discusses a lot of other
issues too) at
http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/emacs-devel/2002-10/msg00011.html,
especially
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2002-10/msg00090.html
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2002-10/msg00137.html
- Get Info declared as a MIME Content-Type.
- Likewise the `info:' URI scheme; a library consortium has proposed a
completely different purpose for the URI scheme, but I don't know
how to send comments, despite it being a "request for comments". Sigh.
There is mail about this in the bug-texinfo archives:
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2003-09/msg00086.html
- Support compressed image files.
- Support reference card creation, perhaps by only paying attention to
sectioning and @def... commands.
- Allow @end (and other?) commands to be indented in the source.
- Test for memory leaks, e.g., with valgrind:
http://developer.kde.org/~sewardj/
- Extend and improve the tests.
* Language:
- @else for the @if... conditionals.
- @xindexterm [def] primary [,secondary [,tertiary]] or some such?
- Allow subitems and `see' and `see also' in indices.
- multicolumn * width to take up `the rest'.
- another table command to take N succeeding items and split them
into M columns (see eplain).
- support bibliographies with BibTeX (see web2c/doc for kludge prototype).
- @flushboth to combine @flushleft and @flushright, for RFC's.
- @part sectioning command.
- @exercise/@answer command for, e.g., gawk.
- Allow @hsep/@vsep at @item, instead of just in template.
- Support automatic line numbering of examples.
- Better macro syntax.
- Allow : in node names for info files, for names like
`class::method'. Likewise index entries. A quoting mechanism such
as surrounding node names with SPACE BACKSPACE is probably the best
solution, although this is an incompatible change to Info format, sigh.
- Change bars. This is difficult or impossible in TeX,
unfortunately. To do it right requires device driver support.
wdiff or ediff may be all we can do.
- @LaTeX{} command to produce the LaTeX logo.
- Glossary/general definition support (dumas msg 28 Nov 2003 17:09:57 +0100).
* Makeinfo:
- Translation of "Appendix" etc. should depend on @doclang not $LANG.
- Try directory of main source file.
- Make makeinfo -E just do macro expansion, avoiding all error checks.
That way, texi2dvi could run makeinfo --iftex -E.
- A detexinfo program, like detex or delatex. This command would
strip all the texinfo commands out, and would be used as a filter on
the way to a speller. An option would be to NOT strip comments out.
makeinfo --no-headers comes close.
- If node name contains an @ command, complain explicitly.
- Use @documentlanguage instead of LANG for many translations.
- HTML: support thumbnails.
- HTML: make images of math, maybe.
- HTML: allow settable background color, table colors and spacing,
<head> meta tags, etc. A la http://texi2html.cvshome.org. In fact:
- HTML: have a library of different CSS styles.
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2004-01/msg00025.html
- Rewrite completely to simplify generation of different formats.
* TeX:
- Use @ as the escape character, and Texinfo syntax generally, in the
table of contents and index files. Eliminate all the crazy
multiple redefinitions of every Texinfo command in different contexts.
- Support input in any encoding and language, via ec or Latin Modern fonts.
- Reasonable way to change fonts from the default (some work has been
done), to allow for PostScript fonts, for example.
- @multitable: handle @hsep and @vsep.
- @multitable: repeat table headings if multiple pages long.
- @multitable: support a heading line concept (<thead> in HTML).
- Introduce new command to change \bindingoffset.
- How about using latex2html to produce HTML?
- Table of contents gets misaligned if there are 10 or more [sub]sections.
- Use url.sty (or something) to allow linebreak of url's.
- PDF: make each letter of the index (A, B, ...) a section in the TOC.
From Carsten Dominik <dominik@astro.uva.nl>.
* Doc:
- Include a complete functional summary, as in a reference card, in
the manual.
- Improve the manuals, especially for makeinfo, standalone info, etc.
- new section on doing dedication pages. See gawk.texi
for an example of doing it in both the tex and info versions.
* Info:
- Regular expression search.
- Full-text search across all info files installed on the system.
- Support character sets other than ISO Latin 1.
- Perhaps comply with LANGUAGE setting on a per-node basis, to allow
incremental translation of Texinfo files.
- Search all nodes of dir file at startup, then can have
INFO-DIR-SEPARATE-GROUPS and other such.
- Better dir file merging.
- Global dir file (as in /etc/conf/dir) and texinfo config file
specifying which info directories to search. From Dale Mellor.
http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/private/gnu-prog-discuss/2003q4/000439.html
- Steal interface ideas from Lynx: number links, use color, etc.
Perhaps code from the pinfo viewer can be reused:
http://zeus.polsl.gliwice.pl/~pborys/.
- More sample .infokey files, so people can choose without writing their own.
- q within help should quit help like C-x 0.
- Incorporate an X-based viewer, perhaps saxinfo or tkinfo
http://www.math.ucsb.edu/~boldt/tkinfo/
- Make "info foo bar" search for bar in foo's index(es) if no menu match.
- Handle M-n, C-u m, and C-u g like Emacs Info (opening new windows).
- Write technical definition of Info format.
* install-info:
- be able to copy the info file to compile-time $infodir, to
simplify by-hand installation.
- also support installing HTML files, etc., along with subsidiary
@image (or other) files. In subdirs. Or something.
- support info dir entries for other than the current info file name;
see comments in menu_item_equal.
- merge features with Debian install-info, so we can have one program.
* texindex:
- read source file (specified by new option) for @documentlanguage
and/or @documentencoding, and change the sorting appropriately.
From: Wojciech Polak, 26 Apr 2003 11:30:59 +0200.
* Distribution:
- generate txi-??.tex from .po's to make translators' jobs easier.
From Akim and Karl E.
Ideas that will not be implemented:
- Process Texinfo files directly instead of converting to Info:
ftp://ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/ucb/people/phelps/tcltk/tkman.tar.Z, which
uses Tcl/Tk 8.0 from ftp.smli.com in the /pub/tcl directory.
From: phelps@ecstasy.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Tom Phelps)
[This has the disadvantage of needing to be updated when the
Texinfo language changes, so don't.]
- Split HTML output by chapter.
[Then cross-references in HTML cannot be generated consistently.]
- Call Ghostscript to get ASCII/jpg output for the @image command.
[makeinfo should not try to be make, or assume it knows how the user
wants to generate images. Too many different methods are possible.]