Re: How to find Info Manuals

[Javier]

In addition to all that you can have the python manuals in info format.
Not straightforward to find, but they are out there.

Code to convert the sphinx/rst documentation to info:
https://bitbucket.org/jonwaltman/sphinx-info
https://bitbucket.org/jonwaltman/rst2texinfo

.texi generation is included in the official sphinx release, but the
quality of the resulting .texi might vary.

The python manual can be downloaded here:
https://github.com/politza/python-info

With MELPA one can M-x package-install python-info
In arch linux you can do yaourt -S python-info
There must exist a debian package with it.

Other libraries docs of python can be compiled to info (numpy, scipy,
django, sphinx itself...).  Other languages like Julia, that use
sphinx/rst docs can also have documentation in texinfo format.

I don't know about much more.  There are some other .info
files scattered around in the web, like the book
'Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs':

http://www.neilvandyke.org/sicp-texi/
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/sicp-info/

It would be very nice if all that stuff were held together somewhere.



Robert Thorpe <rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com> wrote:
> I find Info manuals very useful.  The Emacs Info browser is very fast
> and well-integrated with Emacs.  The "C-h S" command, is invaluable, it
> looks up a symbol in a manual.  For example, if you're editing C code
> and you type C-h S near the word "printf" it will bring up the Info page
> from the GNU C library manual describing the printf function.  Since the
> manual describes related functions together that can be useful, you can
> compare "printf" related functions.  It also works on variables and
> constants that have standard meanings.  This can be useful even when
> using other compilers or libraries, because the manuals describe
> standard functions.
> 
> Almost all GNU project languages and utilities have manuals in Info
> format.  Unfortunately for us users, the Debian people decided that the
> GNU Free Documentation License is a "non-free" license.  When the GNU
> project switched to using it for manuals the Debian people put them in a
> non-free repository.  In my opinion, the behaviour of both sides was
> bad.  Debian derivatives like Ubuntu keep that structure.
> 
> Here is a list of the packages containing the Info manuals for various
> languages and libraries.  In almost all cases the Debian and Ubuntu name
> is the same:
> 
> * Standard C Library (GNU Libc): glibc-doc.
> * Emacs (the whole Emacs manual set): emacs24-common-non-dfsg.
> * GNU Awk: gawk-doc.
> * Ada 2005 language standard: ada-reference-manual-2012
> (ada-reference-manual-info on Ubuntu & old Debian).
> * GNU Ada compiler (GNAT): gnat-doc or gnat-4.6-doc.
> * GNU Fortran 77 & 95: gfortran-doc.
> * Scheme (Guile): guile-1.8-doc-non-dfsg.
> * TeX & LaTeX: some info docs are in texlive-base, but they're not complete.
> * GNU TexInfo: texinfo-doc-nonfree.
> * Autoconf: autoconf-doc.
> * Bison: bison-doc.
> * GNU m4: m4.
> * GNU Make: make-doc.
> * Automake: automake.
> * Cfengine: cfengine2.
> * GNU Maxima: maxima-doc.
> * GNU Octave: octave-info.
> 
> I know that most of these work properly with C-h S, though I'm not sure
> all do.  The Binutils info docs (in binutils-doc) don't support C-h S
> AFAIK.
> 
> The GNU C++ library was done with Doxygen, it doesn't seem to have an
> Info manual.
> 
> If no package is available the Info docs can be installed the old
> fashioned way using 'sudo install-info infofile'.  Due to a packaging
> mistake the Bash info file isn't present it can be found at
> http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/.  The TexInfo people provide
> the Perl documentation in Info format
> http://www.gnu.org/software/perl/manual/ .  No Debian package contains
> the main info file for GNU Common Lisp, the packages only contain some
> additional manuals, I think that's a packaging mistake.  The best way to
> get that manual is from the GCL source tarball.  Somewhere on the internet
> there's an info file of the whole Common Lisp Hyperspec, though I can't
> find it.
> 
> BR,
> Robert Thorpe
>