Re: Colorizing source code in Info manuals

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2024 09:52:41 +0100
> Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> From: Cecilio Pardo <cpardo@imayhem.com>
> 
> On 06/12/2024 8:38, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> > I'm not sure "is not going to add features like color to the Info
> > format" is correct.  Texinfo does support syntax-highlighting of code
> > snippets in HTML output (for now as an experimental feature), so it is
> > not outlandish to assume something similar can be done for the Info
> > format as well.
> 
> It says so in the texinfo manual:
> 
>       Can the Info format be extended to support fonts, colors or
>       reflowable text?
> 
>       [...]
> 
>       Info's core purpose is to display documentation on text terminals.
>       If you want more, you are recommended to use the HTML output from
>       ‘texi2any’ instead.
> 
> Maybe they can add a 'subformat'.

The "^@^H[NAME CONTENTS ^@^H]" cookies are already in the Info format,
so I'm not necessarily talking about extensions.

> > I think this should be discussed with the Texinfo developers, not
> > here.  I can think about at least two possible ways of implementing
> > this in Texinfo:
> > 
> >   . makeinfo could mark the code blocks with special markers, similar
> >     to what it already does with image specs and indices
> >   . makeinfo could produce ANSI color escape sequences in the Info
> >     output, driven by the same syntax-highlighting machinery already
> >     used for HTML
> 
> I'll take a look at what it does with images and take it to them. Will 
> try to include a patch, but I can't really perl.

Thanks.