🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <9104191301.AA03676@apple-gunkies.gnu.ai.mit.edu> 
rms@GNU.AI.MIT.EDU (Richard Stallman) writes:

   I don't think it's advisable for people to write INfo files directly,
   and for that reason I think that the work being done on making this
   easier is misdirected.

   Why not write Info files directly?  Because, by writing a Texinfo file
   instead, you can make a printed manual as well as an Info file.  It's
   very useful for all GNU documentation to be printable as well as
   browsable; probably that is true for your documentation projects as
   well.

I agree that for documents that are to be printed as well as put on-line,
one should write texinfo files rather than info files directly.
But, not all documents need to be printed.  For example, my computer
system resources and site customizations are documented in info files 
created directly without first creating texinfo files.
These are meant to be read on-line only.  I have no intention of
ever printing them.  I also have over a megabyte of personal notes 
in info files created directly.

Besides, writing info files directly has some advantages.
First, making changes are much easier.  While reading an info file, 
let's say I decided to make changes to the file (I do this quite often, 
since many of my personal documents are in info format.)  
This is trivial if I make changes on the info file directly.  
But if I had to modify a texinfo file from which the current
info file was created, then I would have to find the appropriate file,
locate the position in the buffer, make the changes, process the texinfo 
file to create a new info file, then install the new info file.
All this to make one change!  I prefer the former method.

In addition, it is very easy to convert existing documents into info 
format.  An example is VAX/VMS help files.  I converted several VMS help
files into info format and read them using the info browser.  
It was much better than using the VMS "help" command.
It would have made no sense to convert these files into texinfo
format, since printed version wasn't needed.

--
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Richard Y. Kim		ryk@athena.mit.edu
(617) 253-8142 (W),   	(617) 449-7347 (H)