[help-texinfo] \turnoffactive in TeX blocks

[Jay Belanger]

Hi,

The file calc.texi (included with emacs) has trouble compiling under
texi2dvi using recent versions of texinfo.tex.  The problem is that
the @tex ... @end tex blocks begin with "\turnoffactive", which causes
problems with primes in the TeX blocks.  So something like

==============
\input texinfo

@tex
$n'$
@end tex

@bye
==============

compiles fine, but

==============
\input texinfo

@tex
\turnoffactive
$n'$
@end tex

@bye
==============

does not.  (Both compile fine under older versions of texinfo.tex, but
newer versions play around more with "'".)  This second example will
simply stop and require an interruption at the "n'".

(The obvious solution is to remove the "\turnoffactive"s, which I will
probably do, but right now I'm not sure why they are there.  Meanwhile...)

Looking into \turnoffactive, the problem is caused by the
\markupsetuprqdefault, which is defined by

  \gdef\markupsetuprqdefault{\let'\rq}

Meanwhile, both

 @tex
 $n'$
 @end tex

and

 @tex
 $n\rq$
 @end tex

work fine, but

 @tex
 \markupsetuprqdefault
 $n'$
 @end tex

and

 @tex
 \markupsetuprqdefault
 $n\rq$
 @end tex

stop compiling.  My question, I suppose, is why neither "'" nor "\rq"
work in this situation, and what advantages there might be using
"\turnoffactive" in a TeX block.

Thanks,
Jay