Re: Easy navigation to function doc in the HTML manual

[Oliver Heimlich]

On 24.10.2016 13:50, siko1056 wrote:
> Dear Octavers,
> 
> Here is a small proposal for a Javascript extension "ref.html" of the HTML
> reference manual to easily navigate to the documentation of a specific
> function, just knowing its name.
> 
> To find the documentation of the "plot" function, other documentations have
> a base URL + the function name, e.g.
> 
> https://help.scilab.org/docs/6.0.0/en_US/plot.html
> https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/plot.html
> https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/Two_002dDimensional-Plots.html#XREFplot
> 
> Now you want to lookup the "abs" function. In the first two URLs, one simply
> replaces the function name and is there. For Octave some googling or
> [function index][1] reveals the following URL:
> 
> https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/Complex-Arithmetic.html#XREFabs
> 
> I think the problem is apparent. With the inclusion of "ref.html", the two
> URLs can be resolved via:
> 
> https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/ref.html?plot
> https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/ref.html?abs
> 
> which is basically just a post-processing of [1] to a Javascript. If
> someones disagrees with this feature, I'll remove it. I find it especially
> useful for the upcoming "publish" function, where the possibility to link to
> Octave function documentation should be given in the next version.

Kai,

what you want to do is already provided by Texinfo.  There are XREF html
pages for all functions from the function index.  For example, you can
simply use

https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/XREFplot.html

If you want to reference some function from inside another Texinfo
document you may use a htmlxref configuration file with “octave node
https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/” and can then use
xref commands as well:

@xref{Two-Dimensional Plots,,, octave}
@xref{XREFplot,, plot, octave}

… which will let you reference chapters or functions from the function
index.

Oliver