dot in node not accepted in Info in menu entry

[Patrice Dumas]

Hello,

It seems to me that a construct like

@menu
* generate. w::
@end menu

which leads to, in Info

* generate. w::

should be followed as the `generate. w' node.  Currently it doesn't
work.  It may also be that, to be consistent with cases like

@menu
* label: generate. w::
@end menu

where the node name is `generate', the node searched for in the case
above is also `generate'.  If this is so, it should certainly be clearer
in the manual, either in the part about menus, or at least in the Info
format specification part of the manual (I could propose a documentation
patch, in case this is the issue).

I attach a test case.

--
Pat

This is dot_in_node_in_menu.info, produced by texi2any version 4.13.90
from dot_in_node_in_menu.texi.


File: dot_in_node_in_menu.info,  Node: Top,  Next: generate. w,  Up: (dir)

* Menu:

* generate. w::


File: dot_in_node_in_menu.info,  Node: generate. w,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top



Tag Table:
Node: Top103
Node: generate. w207

End Tag Table

[Karl Berry]

    * generate. w::
    should be followed as the `generate. w' node.  Currently it doesn't
    work.  

It does work in Emacs Info (21.3).  So I guess this is for the
standalone reader only.

k

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:54:44 +0200
> From: Patrice Dumas <pertusus@...>
>
> It seems to me that a construct like
>
> @menu
> * generate. w::
> @end menu
>
> which leads to, in Info
>
> * generate. w::
>
> should be followed as the `generate. w' node.  Currently it doesn't
> work.

Right.

> It may also be that, to be consistent with cases like
>
> @menu
> * label: generate. w::
> @end menu

Yes.

> If this is so, it should certainly be clearer in the manual, either
> in the part about menus, or at least in the Info format
> specification part of the manual (I could propose a documentation
> patch, in case this is the issue).

This is already documented:

   * Unfortunately, you cannot use periods, commas, colons or
     parentheses within a node name; these confuse the Texinfo
     processors.  Perhaps this limitation will be removed some day, too.

[Patrice Dumas]

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 12:03:49AM -0400, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>
> > If this is so, it should certainly be clearer in the manual, either
> > in the part about menus, or at least in the Info format
> > specification part of the manual (I could propose a documentation
> > patch, in case this is the issue).
>
> This is already documented:
>
>    * Unfortunately, you cannot use periods, commas, colons or
>      parentheses within a node name; these confuse the Texinfo
>      processors.  Perhaps this limitation will be removed some day, too.

That's not good enough, in my opinion.  For one thing, punctuation signs
do not confuse the Texinfo processors per se, this is rather a limitation
of the Info language.  In Texinfo you can use anything within a node
provided you escape them properly (a comma by @comma, other punctuation
in @asis, for example).  At least it is so with texi2any.

The real issue is with Info, but I think that we can be more precise
than this list.  For instance, in the node header (the line like

  File: c.info,  Node: Top,  Next: c.  d,  Up: (dir)

the only issue should be a comma.  We can come with something more
precise, and to overcome those Info language limitations, it is
useful to know which are intrinsic limitations of the language and
which are due to the implementation of reader and may be changed in
the reader.  This allows to have more cases handled right, even without
changes in the Info format, and also give ideas of what should be
changed in the Info format to remove this limitation, not today, but
maybe tomorrow (and not some day :-).

--
Pat

[Karl Berry]

    The real issue is with Info

Indeed.  In general, it seems to me that if Emacs Info can handle a
"weirdly-named" node correct, standalone Info ought to also.

Sergey?

k

[Sergey Poznyakoff-2]

Karl Berry <karl@...> ha escrit:

> Indeed.  In general, it seems to me that if Emacs Info can handle a
> "weirdly-named" node correct, standalone Info ought to also.
>
> Sergey?

I'm already fixing it.

Regards,
Sergey

[Sergey Poznyakoff-2]

Fixed. Info now correctly follows references to node names containing dots,
as long as the info format allows it.  In particular, such node names
are OK in menus and single-argument xrefs.

Regards,
Sergey