Re: info info; man info (documentation about info)

[Arsen Arsenović]

Evening Gavin,

Gavin Smith <gavinsmith0123@gmail.com> writes:

> On Tue, Jan 10, 2023 at 02:28:16PM +0100, Arsen Arsenović wrote:
>> Also, I didn't realize this before it was mentioned here, but yes,
>> ``(info)Help'' indeed comes with EMACS.  Perhaps we should include a
>> copy in the Texinfo distribution too, or encourage downstreams to
>> extract info.info out of EMACS, so that those installing info but not
>> EMACS (which is rather common) have immediate access to the tutorial.
>> Eli, Gavin, what do you think about that?
>
> (Hopefully my last mail this evening.)
>
> info.texi used to be distributed with Texinfo but was maintained
> as part of Emacs.  There were complaints that having the same file
> distributed with both Emacs and Texinfo was inconvenient:
>
> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2015-10/msg00062.html
>
> I'm happy that info.texi is not distributed with Texinfo, anyway, as
> it is a file that we cannot control and yet would appear responsible
> for if it came with Texinfo.  It makes sense for info-stnd.texi to
> be maintained as part of the Texinfo project because the standalone
> Info browser is also maintained as part of the same project, but the
> same argument does not apply to info.texi.  Discussing changes to
> info.texi on a different project's mailing list could be an unedifying
> experience, which is natural and unavoidable even with the best wills
> in the world.

Ah, I see.  The historic context makes sense now.  Do you think
distributions should make it available without Emacs?  If so, I can do
some outreachy (in a few weeks) and we could print a message at install
time or so about it, so that it does not become "cult knowledge".

(apologies for my lack of familiarity with the history)

Thanks in advance, have a lovely night.
-- 
Arsen Arsenović

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