> > In the default case, when using @documentinfo, the copying text would be
> > output
> > on the verso of the title page in PDF output. No separate command would be
> > necessary.
>
> It is necessary if the user wants a specific formatting different than
> the default.
Could we support input like the following?
@documentinfo
@title Texinfo
@subtitle The GNU Documentation Format
@subtitle for Texinfo version @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
@author Robert J. Chassell
@author Richard M. Stallman
@end documentinfo
@maketitle
@copyrightpage
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
@insertcopying
@sp 1
Published by the Free Software Foundation @*
@c ...
@end copyrightpage
The user uses @maketitle to produce the title page, and the second page
is created by the contents of the @copyrightpage block.
We could also possibly provide a @makecopyrightpage command
for a default copyright page.
If the user wanted to provide explicit formatting of the title page,
they would use @titlepage as before:
@titlepage
@c ...
@end titlepage
@copyrightpage
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
@insertcopying
@sp 1
Published by the Free Software Foundation @*
@c ...
@end copyrightpage
They could also use @titlepage with two pages separated by
@page, as is current practice.
> > Why would we need a new @cover command? Isn't this doing exactly the
> > same thing that @titlepage does? Here the "cover" contains the title
> > page.
> >
> > We shouldn't use such a short, simple name for a command ("cover") that
> > is only for providing explicitly formatted material. (Moreover, the cover
> > of an actual book is not a page and designed separately from the contents.)
>
> You mean that the what is in @titlepage before the first @page is not
> the cover? Anyway it can be another name, like
> @booktitlepage
The cover of a book is the very outside, that is often made of card, cardboard
or leather.
> What I propose is actually inspired from LaTeX, where \maketitle or
> titlepage environment are solely for the title page.
(I should add that I am not at all experienced with using LaTeX to write
documents so could easily miss something important about how it is done
with LaTeX.)
> > there
> > is the problem of what it means in the source if these commands are
> > given in the wrong order:
> >
> > @titleverso
> > @c @dots{}
> > @end titleverso
> >
> > @titlepage
> > @c @dots{}
> > @end titlepage
> >
> > @node Top
> > @top
> >
> > This would especially be a problem for the texinfo.tex output where the
> > output
> > is done as the input is read. (It's not a major problem.)
>
> We could simply document that they should be in the output order.
Yes, that should be enough.
> What could be more complicated for the TeX implementation, is that if
> the @titleverso is not present, the default output (like @vskip 0pt plus
> 1filll
> followed by @insercopying) should be automatically output at the right
> place.
We need some kind of explicit command to output the title page and/or the
title verso page for TeX output (and possibly LaTeX output with texi2any).
I don't think it's advisable to try and make it automatic. Sometimes users
might not want a title page, or might not quite follow the strucutre of the
document that we expect them to. @maketitle and @copyrightpage would be
ignored in nearly all output formats with texi2any but users would have to
give them anyway if they wanted such pages for printed output.
> Another constraint should be that the new command is used
> (@booktitlepage for example) and not @titlepage, if @titlepage is used,
> the titleverso could already be there.
>
> > Perhaps @copyrightpage could be used instead of @titleverso as this is
> > more descriptive and this page is universally used for copyright notices.
>
> It seems to me that it can be used for some other purposes that
> copyright notices, but it is used for copyright notices in any case, so
> it is ok for me.
