defining new environments

Hello,

I have two questions:

1. in latex, one can define new environments with the
\newenvironment macro. The closest thing I have found
in texinfo is @alias.

However, if I do

@alias lang=lisp

then I can begin an environment with @lang but must end
it with @end lisp. Is this a bug, feature or am I missing
something?

2. Is there another mechanism to define environments within
a texinfo document.

In case it is unclear, by `environment', I mean it in the sense
of the latex macro, a block of the form

@foo
<text>
@end foo

and foo processes <text>.

Leo

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