On 01/12/2025 19:31, Gavin Smith wrote:
On Thu, Nov 27, 2025 at 03:38:37PM +0100, Rik wrote:
This creates a valid PDF file. Review page 3 of the PDF and on my system an
index entry which points to only one page number has both the text and the
page number as a single hyperlink. This is a change from previous versions
of texinfo.tex where only the page number itself was a hyperlink. The
behavior is also different from an index entry that has multiple page
numbers in which case the text is no longer a link, but the individual page
numbers still are.
I've replicated the behaviour you describe and this is working as intended.
Users wanted the index text as well as the page numbers to link to the
location referenced by the index entry.
It is not advisable to link the index text when there is more than one
referenced page as there is no clear reason to link to one of the pages
rather than the other.
I doubt there is any improvement to be made in the output here but let us
know if you have any ideas.
The preference among the Octave developers I polled was for the
existing/historical style of presenting link text and link page numbers.
But, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and I have no doubt that someone
finds the other style more attractive.
Would it be possible to support both formats using a Customization Variable
(CV)? My macro skills aren't up to the full challenge of creating a new CV,
but I did create a proof-of-concept patch for texinfo.tex where I re-used
the existing CV @allowcodebreaks to switch between creating hyperlinks for
text+page numbers and hyperlinks for just page numbers. See attached files.
Obviously, a real variable with a better name would be needed. I had the
idea of @linkindextext and it could default to true so users really wanting
this feature would get it without further configuration.
--Rik
It's easy enough to implement but I don't see the problem with having the
index entry linked to the referenced page. Is it just that some entries
are a different colour if links are coloured?
Yes, that's right. Octave's manual chooses to use a different color for
hyperlinks than for ordinary text, just as HTML does. This is obviously
useful for indicating to the reader what is ordinary text and what is
active text. In the index we have some links that point to a single page
and other that point to multiple pages. The result of that is sort of like
a dog with mange in that there are blotches of black and blotches of rust
red link color.
As I wrote earlier, everyone's version of "beauty" could be different so I
thought it might be possible to support both the prior appearance and the
current one rather than forcing a choice. But, if you tell me this is too
hard then that's the way it is.
--Rik
