Re: Customizing @var?

[Patrice Dumas]

On Sun, Sep 25, 2022 at 10:18:31PM -0700, Robert Dodier wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 24, 2022 at 2:07 AM Patrice Dumas <pertusus@free.fr> wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, Sep 20, 2022 at 04:31:08PM -0700, Raymond Toy wrote:
> > > Is it possible to customize what @var does (for info files) without
> > > redefining @var?
> > > Maxima redefines @var to
> > >
> > > @macro var {expr}
> > > <\expr\>
> > > @end macro
> >
> > This is not recommended, and could even be forbidden, in my opinion, to
> > redefine existing Texinfo @-commands.
> 
> I wonder if you can be more precise about "could even be forbidden".
> Do you mean to say it is allowed (with a warning) by the most recently
> released version of Texinfo, but it might be disallowed in a future
> version? If so, is there any definite plan about that? i.e., in what
> future version is it anticipated that it will become disallowed.

There is currently a warning.  There is no definite plan I know of to
turn the warning to an error, or to disallow completly, for example 
by ignoring the @macro.  But I suggest that you anticipate any future
error or change and replace by a user-defined name.  In the manual, it
is said:

   * It is not advisable to redefine any TeX primitive, plain, or
     Texinfo command name as a macro.  Unfortunately, this is a large
     and open-ended set of names, and the possible resulting errors are
     unpredictable.

That being said, I do not have a solution for the @table argument
issue (and there is a similar issue with @itemize argument).

-- 
Pat