info on M$ ...

[Dr. Ing. Dieter Jurzitza]

Hi list,
today I had a chance to dive a little deeper into texinfo-4.0 on M$. Here are
the findings I would like to share with you:
Adding the apropriate switch to texinfo-4.0/makeinfo/Makefile as mentioned
by Carlos Puig the texinfo distribution compiles smoothly on Win NT PL6.
However, the program does not work as it should. First of all I had
to patch texinfo-4.0/lib/system.h (line 163). The PATH_SEP active on NT4.0 (I
assume the same thing to happen on Win95) is ; - this prevents the default path
from working, the TEXINFO environment variable does not function apropriately
and info cannot handle ".gz" files - i.e. info.info.gz. In addition the
following somewhat strange behaviour may be observed. If the info files are
zipped ones I may dive into if I call the corresponding info file from the
commandline. Let me explain this:
assume octave.info may be found as /usr/local/info/octave.info.gz
if you say: info octave -> works
if you say: info; then choose octave from the list, info moans about strange
errors. However, the corresponding dir entry (say /usr/local/info/dir) may be
zipped (dir.gz) without causing difficulties.
Fortunately (;-) ) I did not upgrade my M$ installation at home from Win3.1.
This keeps me from debugging further through the weekend. Maybe I can free a
little time to go on next week. I am glad enough to not being forced to use
mickey-soft at home.
My *please* to the list: can anyone have a look on texinfo-4.0/lib/system.h and
maybe understand why the define for PATH_SEP is chosen that way? It happens
within a special if - else construct I do not reallly understand. Additionally
there is a remaining need for having a look onto this problem with zipped info
files. If anybody can find the time to look onto this - would be great!

A question to those who share this specific discussion: do you think we should
take this topic off the list and discuss it seperately? I am not sure whether
we should keep all list-listeners bombed with long messages about info on M$.
Please give me your opinion about this!
Many thanks,
take care


Dieter

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E-Mail: Dr. Ing. Dieter Jurzitza <address@hidden>
Date: 17-Nov-00
Time: 20:02:56                 |
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