Re: On being web-friendly and why info must die

[Phillip Lord]

Ludovic Courtès <address@hidden> writes:
> GNU has a culture of high-quality documentation.  Texinfo is a tool for
> that, providing features like indexes, cross-manual references,
> documentation-oriented markup, and several output media.  AFAIK, neither
> AsciiDoc nor “heavier” options like DocBook support all of that.

Asiidoc does do indexes, as does docbook. And, yes, multiple output
formats. Seriously, almost everything does multiple output formats.

> Info browsers make it easy to browse manuals, search for index terms,
> follow links, including to other manuals.  A Web browser cannot achieve
> that because a Web browser is not designed for that.

Web pages and browsers can do anything at all. Here is a webpage which boots
so linux and runs some of GNU

http://jslinux.org/

I use a web browser as powerpoint presentation tool, complete with next
and back buttons, timers and index navigation. I don't think anyone has
done it yet, but you could port info to a browser if you wanted.



> "Eric S. Raymond" <address@hidden> skribis:
>
>> I have discussed this with RMS and, pending my ability to actually write
>> proper translation tools, we have agreed on asciidoc as a new master 
>> format.
>
> That’s a discussion that would need to involve all of GNU, not just
> Emacs circles.  I don’t see how that change could happen.

Not really. Someone has to try it first.


Phil