A pretest distribution for the next Texinfo release (7.3) has been uploaded to
https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/texinfo-7.2.90.tar.xz We make these pretests to help find any problems before we make an official release to a larger audience, so that the release will be as good as it can be. It also makes updated strings available to translation teams. Please send any feedback to <[email protected]>. This could include problems building on particular platforms, or feedback on how new features work. Here is a summary of changes since the previous release (7.2, 2024-12-23): There are several new commands in the Texinfo language, including commands to streamline the creation of title and copyright pages. With conversion to PDF using the texinfo.tex file, non-ASCII characters from section titles can now occur in the PDF outline. The PDF outline also now contains entries for initial letters in any indices in the document. texi2any conversion to HTML is now done mostly in C, rather than in Perl (if XS modules are enabled), so is much faster. In the HTML output, the "transliteration" feature where non-ASCII characters in link targets are replaced is now off by default. This gives better results for languages where this feature did not work well, like Japanese. texi2any looks in htmlxref.d directories for information on links to external manuals, in addition to files called htmlxref.cnf, making it easier to combine information on manuals from different sources. Syntax highlighting of code samples in HTML output with the 'HIGHLIGHT_SYNTAX' variable is no longer marked as experimental, and works slightly differently. Error and warning messages again include any directory components of input file names. There have been improvements in the warning messages given about the structure of menus in a document. For the Info output, the new experimental variable 'INFO_MATH_IMAGES' causes texi2any to create images for any uses of the @math or @displaymath commands. The Info format has been extended to support such images. The Info program supports a "hook" system which can be used to give the user information on obtaining uninstalled manuals. There has been a change to how command-line arguments to Info are interpreted, which aids in finding documentation of command-line options. Here is the full news: * Language . new commands for title page creation: @documentinfo, @publication, and @maketitle. you can use these instead of explicit formatting inside @titlepage. . you can use heading commands such as @heading after @node. nodes defined this way are not part of the chapter structure of the document (unlike if @section etc. were used). . new command @xrefname can follow @node in place of a heading command. this is for when you do not want any heading at all to be displayed. . new command @namedanchor for defining text to be used for a cross- reference to an anchor (with @xrefautomaticsectiontitle on) . new command @thispart to print part name in headings or footings . deprecate @clickstyle . if there is no @documentlanguage, the language is unspecified, rather than en_US. (texi2any will still use English strings by default, but will not put en_US in the output, depending on output format.) * texi2any . texi2any uses the Perl extensions in C for converters when possible, which results in a large speed-up for HTML output. set the `TEXINFO_XS_CONVERT' environment variable to 0 for pure Perl. . optional texi2any program implementation in C embedding Perl. use --enable-c-texi2any to prefer the C implementation. . report leading directory components of input file names in messages (this reverses 6.8 release change, 2021). . when CHECK_NORMAL_MENU_STRUCTURE is on, give the line number of the problem menu entry . DUMP_TREE should now be a file name, or - to output to standard error . remove USE_REL_REV variable; former effect is now always on . (API only) rename LINKS_BUTTONS customization variable to LINKS_DIRECTIONS . (API only) rename space direction ' ' to 'Space' . HTML output: . the HIGHLIGHT_SYNTAX variable can be used for syntax highlighting of code samples. this feature was present in earlier releases but is no longer marked as experimental. . do not wrap the contents of <style> elements in an HTML comment, as this is no longer needed for browser compatibility . the --transliterate-file-names option (which sets the TRANSLITERATE_FILE_NAMES variable) is now off by default. . when creating redirection files with --node-files (the default), ignore the settings of TRANSLITERATE_FILE_NAMES, BASEFILENAME_LENGTH, and EXTENSION. . likewise, ignore these variables for links to external manuals (they are still used for the file names generated for the converted manual content). . the default setting of WORDS_IN_PAGE has changed from 300 to 200. this means that a navigation panel is more likely to be output at the bottom of fairly short nodes. . use the last @printindex in the input file for the Index direction . only output 'accesskey' attributes when splitting by node . for locations of external manuals, use files ending with the .cnf extension in the htmlxref.d directories (in addition to files called htmlxref.cnf). this should make it easier to combine information on HTML cross-references from different sources. . in an htmlxref file, you can explicity trigger a link to a local manual by using an empty URL . you can set FORMAT_MENU to 'menu_no_detailmenu' to omit an automatically generated @detailmenu from the Top node . info.js (with INFO_JS_DIR) fixes and improvements: . avoid pop-up over Top node and display the correct title . --internal-links outputs more types of internal link, including anchors, sections and floats. the possible type names reported in the second column have changed. . USE_NEXT_HEADING_FOR_LONE_NODE removed. former effect is now always on. . (API only) remove the buttons specifications with scalar references, direction text or functions references should be used instead . (API only) remove the Texinfo::TeX4HT customization package . Info output: . new experimental variable INFO_MATH_IMAGES allows outputting images for mathematics notation . LaTeX output: . use UTF-8 encoding for output by default, regardless of input encoding. override with OUTPUT_ENCODING_NAME. . XML output: . use HTML entities names for @H and @dotaccent accents types * texinfo.tex . add entries in PDF outline for index initials . use Unicode in PDF outline for input documents encoded in UTF-8 . '@set xrefautomaticsectiontitle on' does not affect cross-references to anchors, matching the HTML output . separate adjacent footnote markers with commas, e.g. '1, 2' not '1 2' * info . you can use hook scripts to handle an info manual not being found. these hooks can provide a message to the user with information on how to install the manual. . when run as 'info TOPIC INDEX-ENTRY', prefer index entries that refer to the node that would be loaded by 'info TOPIC'. this aids in retrieving documentation of command-line options when multiple programs are documented in the same manual. for example, 'info cp -- -s' goes to the documentation of the -s option for the cp program in the coreutils manual, rather than the -s option of any other program. . list all customizable variables in help buffer including how they got their values . reuse introductory text in dir file rather than supplying our own text, as was the case in older version of info and is the case in Emacs . removed fallback if a node is not found in a cross-reference to searching for a file of the same name. e.g. "* Foo::" in a menu would go to a file called "Foo", if no node called "Foo" was found. now only the node is looked for. * Distribution . automake 1.18.1, autoconf 2.72, gettext 0.26, libtool 2.5.4 . support for DJGPP removed
