On 3 February 2016 at 23:47, Karl Berry <[email protected]> wrote: > motivation for this change in the first place. > > The motivation was simple enough: compatibility (what else). > > For many years, every Texinfo file had @contents (and optionally > @shortcontents) at the end, because that was the way rms originally > wrote texinfo.tex, so that the TOC would be typeset using the info from > that run. People used dviselect to move the toc page(s) to the right > place.
I meant the change in October 2014, but thanks for the history anyway. I'd never realised this was the reason why the TOC was put at the end: I'd assumed it was some antiquated, hare-brained convention. Hmm, I wonder if that's the reason why tables of contents are often numbered with roman numerals: so they can be tacked on at the beginning after the rest of the book is finished. > I don't think that there's a good reason to use > @setcontentsaftertitlepage in any Texinfo file anyway, > > Indeed, not any more. I surmise the @set*contentsafter... commands > could be non-implemented by an \errmessage saying "move your @*contents > command". -k Good idea. I'd like to wait until after the release though before removing or deprecating a command.
