Re: OVERVIEW_LINK_TO_TOC and other variables

[Patrice Dumas]

On Fri, Dec 24, 2021 at 05:33:59PM +0100, Patrice Dumas wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 23, 2021 at 04:55:36PM +0000, Gavin Smith wrote:
> > On Tue, Dec 21, 2021 at 09:28:45PM +0000, Gavin Smith wrote:
> > 
> > > > > You could add @shortcontents at the start of the document to get a 
> > > > > list
> > > > > of chapters.  Do you think that would solve the problem?
> > > > 
> > > > It would.  However, the links don't work: clicking them does not lead 
> > > > anywhere.
> > > > 
> > > > :|
> > > 
> > > Haven't looked into this yet.
> > 
> > So it looks like the default behaviour for the Short Table of Contents
> > is to link to the corresponding part of the Table of Contents, even if
> > there is none.  That's why the links didn't work.
> > 
> > This is customized with the OVERVIEW_LINK_TO_TOC variable.  It's not easy
> > to find this out because the manual calls it the "Overview" and not the
> > "Short Table of Contents":
> > 
> > 'OVERVIEW_LINK_TO_TOC'
> >      If set, the cross-references in the Overview link to the
> >      corresponding Table of Contents entries; default true.
> > 
> > My suggestion is to remove this variable and make the links in the
> > @shortcontents link to the chapters themselves by default.  Any comments?
> 
> This has been set as the default while it was not the default in
> texi2html, so it was set like that on purpose and I would guess that it
> is expected by at least some users.  What I would propose, instead is
> * to rename OVERVIEW_LINK_TO_TOC as SHORT_TOC_LINK_TO_TOC
> * if there is no table of contents output, link to the chapters even
>   if SHORT_TOC_LINK_TO_TOC is set
> 
> > I also propose removing BEFORE_OVERVIEW, AFTER_OVERVIEW, BEFORE_TOC_LINES
> > and AFTER_TOC_LINES as they don't seem to be very useful.  These can easily
> > produce invalidly nested HTML if not used correctly.
> 
> The documentation is clear on that subject.  I would propose renaming
> BEFORE_OVERVIEW as BEFORE_SHORT_TOC and AFTER_OVERVIEW as AFTER_SHORT_TOC
> but leave them in.
> 
> > I looked through mailing list archives and ChangeLog but couldn't find
> > any mention of these variables.
> 
> That's because they come from texi2html, and, if I recall well, from the
> Singular manual, so I would leave them, in case they are used in some
> manual.

Can I proceed with what I proposed?

-- 
Pat