Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sol.usc.edu!siemsen From: siemsen@sol.usc.edu (Pete Siemsen) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex Subject: Re: Texinfo: what/where is it? Message-ID: <27593@usc.edu> Date: 18 Oct 90 00:44:31 GMT References: <7452.271cabe3@uwovax.uwo.ca> Sender: news@usc.edu Lines: 33 Nntp-Posting-Host: sol.usc.edu From the (100-page) texinfo manual: Texinfo is a documentation system that uses a single source file for both on-line help and a printed manual. This means that instead of writing two different documents, one for the on-line help and the other for the printed manual, only one document needs to be written. When the system is revised, only one file has to be revised. Using Texinfo, you can create a document with the normal features of a book such as chapters, cross references and indices. The chapters and sections of the book can be made to correspond to the nodes of the on-line help. The cross references and indices can be used in both the on-line help and in the printed document. Indices are generated semi-automatically. The "GNU Emacs Manual" is a good example of a Texinfo file. You create a texinfo file, the first line of which is a \include to include file texinfo.tex. So the texinfo file can be run directly through TeX to produce the printed document. To make an info file that can be accessed by Emacs or some simple browsing code, you use an Emacs macro. We've used it successfully. There is a learning curve, as you must be comfortable with TeX format, info format and Texinfo format. It also makes you organize the information so it fits well into both kinds of output. It's a great way to make the information in your printed documents available on-line. -- Pete Siemsen Pete Siemsen siemsen@usc.edu University of Southern California 645 Ohio Ave. #302 (213) 740-7391 (w) 1020 West Jefferson Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90814 (213) 433-3059 (h) Los Angeles, CA 90089-0251