Re: HTML-Info design

[David Kastrup]

Nic Ferrier <address@hidden> writes:

> David Kastrup <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> As another data point: quite a few people here claimed that Texinfo 5's
>> drop of compilation speed was a deal breaker for them.
>>
>> Compilation speed.  And you are working on a replacement for an
>> interactive application that is supposed to tie into one's editing
>> workflow.  And it is supposed to tie into Emacs workflows by engaging an
>> Emacs-based HTML browser.
>>
>> That's a long long uphill battle.  So one should very much focus on
>> thinking about game-changing workflow features implementable in the HTML
>> backend that are not accessible from Info.
>
> I don't really get this. We're not replacing texinfo. We're replacing
> Info.
>
> We're replacing Info so you can generate documentation in multiple
> authorial formats, easily write converters for your authorial format of
> choice into one Info and have it displayed the same.
>
> So I don't think compilation speed is much of a problem.

Exactly.  People were annoyed enough at compilation speed to call it a
game changer, but it is really of very little relevance when compared
with raw interactive response.  And raw interactive response is where
you have to compete with Info.

With a crowd that already calls a change in *compilation* speed from
Texinfo 4 to Texinfo 5 inacceptable, getting InfoHTML to acceptable
interactive performance when compared with Info is going to be quite the
hard pitch.

-- 
David Kastrup