Re: @itemize @asis is not well supported

[Gavin Smith]

On Mon, Mar 04, 2024 at 03:59:26PM +0100, Bruno Haible wrote:
> @itemize @asis
> seems to work in HTML and info mode only, not in TeX mode.
> 
> 
> How to reproduce (with texinfo-7.1):

Patrice covered most of it.

It reproduces with any test file with "@itemize @asis" in it.

> /tmp/gnulib/doc/gnulib-tool.texi:472: Argument of @asis has an extra }.

It appears to be a deliberate failure:

  % Try typesetting the item mark so that if the document erroneously says
  % something like @itemize @samp (intending @table), there's an error
  % right away at the @itemize.  It's not the best error message in the
  % world, but it's better than leaving it to the @item.  This means if
  % the user wants an empty mark, they have to say @w{} not just @w.
  \def\itemcontents{#1}%
  \setbox0 = \hbox{\itemcontents}%

\itemcontents expands to \asis and then TeX tries to take the } following
as the argument to \asis, which is invalid.

Basically @asis takes an argument in the TeX implementation, whereas
commands like @bullet or @minus don't, even though you usually should
write them as @bullet{} and @minus{}.
>   * The workaround, which is to use @w{} instead of @asis, is hard to find 
> [3].
> 

It's documented in the Texinfo manual:

>  If you don't want any mark at all, but still want logical
> items, use ‘@w{}’ (in this case the braces are required).

Info node '(texinfo)@itemize'.
https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/manual/texinfo/html_node/_0040itemize.html