On Thu, Oct 17, 2024 at 01:04:48PM +0100, Gavin Smith wrote: > Now there are only 3 files installed under DATADIR/texinfo: > > texinfo/texindex.awk > texinfo/htmlxref.cnf > texinfo/texinfo.dtd > > texinfo.dtd is coupled to the exact version of texi2any that is installed > although texi2any does not actually access this file.
It is not actually coupled to the version of texi2any, it is coupled to the Texinfo language. It is possible not to increase the DTD number if the language didn't change, although this should not happen often. > (It's also a pointless file as nobody uses --xml output for anything It happened in the past, but it has not been used, as far as I know for many years. Also, I do not really follow the trends in computer programming, but it seems to me that XML is not trendy anymore. > and I'd be quite happy to have this output format removed in the future. > So we shouldn't add subdirectories to install files like > DATADIR/texinfo/7.1/texinfo.dtd.) We shouldn't in any case, using the latest one is the best. We do not even have a formal numbering for the Texinfo language, and it is not needed, not more for the DTD. > I don't know if htmlxref.cnf should be installed under DATADIR/texinfo To me, definitively DATADIR/texinfo. > or DATADIR/texi2any. texi2any needs to access it and I don't know if > we are encouraging people to edit the installed version of htmlxref.cnf. We do not encourage people to edit the installed version, modifications should better be in sysconfdir/xdg/htmlxref.cnf or in user directory. I think that it would make sense for packagers, however, to modify it. In the longer term, I really think that we should replace this file by a directory anyway. > It is not like DATADIR/info/dir which we don't install and which people > are encouraged to edit. My feeling is that in practice, DATADIR/info/dir is only edited by install-info. > I thought that it might be a good idea to use DATADIR/texi2any for > all texi2any files in case texi2any becomes its own project in the > future, separate from other parts of Texinfo. It could be something > to consider for the interests of long-term maintainabilty although > I am not proposing that it happens at present. I think that it is better if texi2any, Texinfo TeX and associated scripts and install-info stay together as they make a consistent package for conversion and installation. The standalone Info reader could be in a separate package, if needed, in my opinion. But I do not think that it matters anyway, as the issues are not along how packages are split, but who wants to contribute. > texindex.awk is used by texindex installed undir BINDIR. So > I doubt we can easily make DATADIR/texinfo a completely version-independent > directory (along the lines of DATADIR/info). I also do not think that we should. My opinion is that we could try to make it possible for other implementations to use the same directory, but not try to be fully independent of the GNU Texinfo needs nor of the version of GNU Texinfo or the (implicit) version of the Texinfo language. > However, it could be > possible to have subdirectories of DATADIR/texinfo used for this purpose > (DATADIR/texinfo/init and so on). I think that it would also be better if those subdirectories could be used, at least in theory by other implementations. -- Pat
