A pretest distribution for the next Texinfo release (7.1) has been
uploaded to
https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/texinfo-7.0.90.tar.xz
In the upcoming release, the Texinfo language has been extended with a
new @link command for making unobtrusive hyperlinks. In Info output, the
@nodedescription command allows for more thorough automatic generation of
node menus. In HTML output, there is more support for automatic syntax
highlighting of computer code. In PDF (and DVI) output with texinfo.tex,
the default has changed so that the ` and ' characters in code samples
are output as the more usual asymmetric backquote and apostrophe glyphs,
rather than as directed quote marks. This release also gives more
flexibility for making "definitions" like those made by built-in commands
like @deffn.
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.
Please send any feedback to bug-texinfo@gnu.org.
Here is the full news:
* Language
. new generic definition commands, @defblock, @defline and @deftypeline,
for definitions without automatic index entries
. new @linemacro facility eases use of generic definition commands
. new command @link creates plain links (supported output formats only)
. @cartouche takes an argument to specify the cartouche title
. you can use the new commands @nodedescription and @nodedescriptionblock
to give text to be used in menu descriptions in Info and HTML output
* texi2any
. @itemx at the beginning of a @table is now an error, not a warning
. better validity checking of deeply nested commands
. check that @set and @clear only appear at the start of a line
. warn about missing menu entries even if CHECK_NORMAL_MENU_STRUCTURE is
not set. you can turn this off by setting CHECK_MISSING_MENU_ENTRY to 0.
. no longer use --enable-encoding and --disable-encoding to determine
whether to output encoded characters (instead of entities or commands)
for HTML, XML, DocBook and LaTeX; instead, use the value of the
OUTPUT_CHARACTERS customization variable.
. stricter checks on input encoding, in particular more warnings and
errors with malformed UTF-8
. support any input file encoding if support exists in the operating
system, not just a selected list of encodings
. resolve an alias referring to another alias at definition time
. internally, use "source marks" to keep all Texinfo source information that
is not in the final tree (location of macros, values and included files
expansion, @if* blocks, DEL comment, and @ protecting end of line on @def*
lines)
. HTML output:
. format @subentry and index entries with @seealso or @seeentry in a more
similar way to printed output
. output @shortcontents before @contents by default
. omit colons after index entries by default. this can still be
configured with INDEX_ENTRY_COLON.
. add @example syntax highlighting as a texi2any extension
. no more capitalization of @sc argument in HTML Cross-references
. change @point expansion to U+22C6 in HTML Cross-references
. if a @node is not associated with a sectioning command but is
followed by a heading command not usually associated to nodes
such as @heading and this command appears before other formatted
content, the heading command is assumed to supply the node heading.
you can customize this with USE_NEXT_HEADING_FOR_LONE_NODE.
. Info output:
. new variable ASCII_DASHES_AND_QUOTES, on by default,
outputs ASCII characters for literal quote or hyphen characters
in source, rather than UTF-8. this makes it easier to search
Info files.
. new ASCII_GLYPH variable for using ASCII renditions for glyph
commands (like @bullet)
. ASCII_PUNCTUATION still includes the effect of these new variables.
. new variables AUTO_MENU_DESCRIPTION_ALIGN_COLUMN and AUTO_MENU_MAX_WIDTH
control the format of descriptions in generated menus
. XML output:
. place menu leading text and menu separators in elements instead
of attributes
* texi2dvi
. macro expansion with texi2any requires at least version 5.0 (only
happens with --expand option or with very old texinfo.tex)
* texinfo.tex
. in @code, ` and ' output by default with backtick and undirected
single quote glyphs in the typewriter font. you can still configure
this using the @codequoteundirected/@codequotebacktick commands.
. do not insert a space for @ def line continuation, matching the behavior
of texi2any
. align section titles in table of contents when more than 10 sections
. microtype is off by default, for speed
. page headings generation is no longer linked to the @titlepage command
* info
. when going Up, position cursor on menu entry for current node
. allow mouse scrolling support regardless of termcap entries. this
supports some more xterm configurations.
. do not use "/index" as a possible file extension for Info files
* Distribution
. autoconf 2.71, automake 1.16.5, gettext 0.21