Re: control over sectioning and splitting

[Patrice Dumas]

On Wed, Jul 26, 2023 at 09:57:08PM +0100, Gavin Smith wrote:
> I agree that it might be difficult to do an @anchor association with
> a following @section correctly.  It would be less straightforward
> to parse as the association of @anchor would depend on what came
> after it.  However, it might be a clean way (for document authors)
> to give a way to link to the @section if it doesn't have a @node.

The issue I see, is that authors may want to have the anchor at the end
of the preceding section too.  While for node it is clear that the
section and the node are at the same place.

> > I tried to progress on that issue, not by tweaking anchors associated to
> > @*heading but starting to work on nodes association with the following
> > @*heading command.
> 
> If I understand correctly, this is using @heading instead of @section, but
> with a @node line.  One difference is that @heading would not put an
> entry in the table of contents.  If you look at Per's original message, then
> he wanted the entries in the table of contents.

But then sectioning commands could simply be used.  I have probably
missed something.

> With the following input:
> 
> >>>>>
> \input texinfo
> 
> @node Top
> @top
> 
> Test manual.
> 
> @contents
> 
> @node Frontends including browsers
> @chapter Frontends including browsers
> 
> A frontend is a program that handles the user interface.
> 
> @node Copy and paste
> @heading Copy and paste
> 
> Paste should work on all front-ends if domterm makes use of libclipboard.
> 
> @node Electron
> @subheading Electron
> 
> Start the Electron frontend (if available) with the --electron option.
> 
> @bye
> >>>>>
> 
> and then running 'texi2any test.texi --html', there are
> files 'Electron.html' and 'Copy-and-paste.html' created that are not
> linked to from anywhere.  The contents are only linked with
> 'texi2any test.texi --html -c USE_NODES=0'.

Indeed, the idea is to have splitting by chapter, if split by node,
nodes cannot be used as internal delimiters.

> > There are still at least two issues for this to correspond to Per
> > use cas (if I understood well, feel free to correct me).
> > 
> > First, there are, with USE_NODES=1, navigation panels for each of the
> > nodes.  They are mostly empty for lone nodes without explicit
> > directions, but not completly empty.  Are thses navigation panels
> > wanted?  Should there be a specific way to remove them, or are the
> > existing ways ok?
> 
> I'm confused as I thought the whole point was to use USE_NODES=0 to
> split the manual at the @chapter level.  The "Copy and paste" and
> "Electron" sections should all be in the same file.

Indeed, but without any separation in elements at nodes.

-- 
Pat