🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <kv7ebgINN5k3@alhena.usc.edu> ajayshah@alhena.usc.edu (Ajay Shah) writes:

   0. Because it's "so different from TeX" you lose by not being
   able to use masses of PD stuff for TeX -- style files, hooks for
   putting pictures in, etc.

That's right.  Unfortunately, this is precisely because Texinfo is not
a replacement for TeX, or an extension, but a reduction to a specific
task, that of producing manuals in two formats easily.

   1. It won't work with Bibtex, and there is no alternative replacement.

Perhaps there should be.  It shouldn't be too hard.

   2. You do get info files for online use, but it's certainly not "for
   free".  You have to pay quite some effort to get a good info file out
   of a document.  (This is not so much a "con" as a warning.  Don't go 
   into Texinfo thinking you will get a info file for free).

The deal is that you get one for very cheap.  It takes effort, but not
nearly as much as writing two manuals. 

   3. Mixing mathematics and Texinfo is, bluntly, a nightmare.  The
   TeX sentence

   The most beautiful equation in all mathematics is $e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0$

   translates into

   The most beautiful equation in all mathematics is
   @ifinfo
   exp(i pi) + 1 = 0
   @end ifinfo
   @iftex
   @tex
   $e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0$
   @end tex
   @end iftex

   which is a ghastly loss in productivity for me, since every alternate
   paragraph I write uses $mathematics$.  Some of it is unavoidable
   (since you want both a plaintext info file) but surely there was
   a way to get the same functionality at the cost of fewer keystrokes?

Ah!  You should have looked at an existing manual to see what it does.
The GNU calc manual, of course, needs this.  Take a look at the front
of calc.texinfo and you can see how to do this easily.

   4. There is zero programmability.

calc.texinfo shows a cheap way to get this as well.

	-mib
--
   Michael I. Bushnell  +--+  +1 617 625 4518 (H)  +--+  +1 617 253 8568 (W)
Mary Magdalene turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did
not know that it was Jesus.  Jesus said to her, ``Woman, why are you
weeping?  Whom are you looking for?''  Supposing him to be the
gardener, she said to him, ``Sir, if you have carried him away, tell
me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.''  Jesus said to
her, ``Mary!''  She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ``Rabbouni!''
(which means Teacher).