* On 2024 25 Jul 07:48 -0500, Oliver Schode wrote: > To be honest I'm not happy with the info format still being around, > precisely because sometimes man pages don't cut it, and we should have > something better by now. On the other hand, and I'll make no bones > about it, so called chatbots turned out to be extremely useful > (overused) for me in that respect and are now doing enough of the job > for about 80% of the time. You just can't beat that for speed or > convenience, and when is there no internet connection.
The info format is generated from a source document format GNU calls texinfo that is a subset (superset?) of Tex. The info files are just one of several formats that can be generated from the Texinfo source. Other popular formats are HTML, Post Script, and PDF. Sometimes these latter formats are included in a *-doc package of GNU software and sometimes not. All are usually available from the related GNU Web site. I typically will search for an HTML version of a GNU manual. The only problem is that what is found online are the latest versions and Debian Stable packages may be a version or two behind. Texinfo is from a time when GNU documentation was only man pages or flat text files and something "better" was desired for moving through a manual in what is now known as a hypertext format. It also includes a lot of semantic markup rather than the basics forms of emphasis included in HTML. It is actually a rather capable format it's just that the info format and the info utility intended for terminal display throw nearly all of that away. - Nate -- "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true." Web: https://www.n0nb.us Projects: https://github.com/N0NB GPG fingerprint: 82D6 4F6B 0E67 CD41 F689 BBA6 FB2C 5130 D55A 8819
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