Re: Generalising @def*

[Gavin Smith]

On Sat, Feb 11, 2023 at 11:59:08AM +0000, Gavin Smith wrote:
> I have gone off the idea of using @macro for this.  I am thinking a
> more limited command would be better, as mentioned in an earlier message

I've committed a change to texinfo.tex for a new command @newdef.  Example
usage:

    @defcodeindex bi
    
    @newdef @defbuiltin = Builtin bi
    @newdef @defdoodad = Doodad {}
    
    @defblock
    @defbuiltin yeah (ok)
    @deflinex {Builtinoid} foo (bar)
    hello
    
    @defbuiltin something (else)
    more
    
    @defdoodad brick
    Description of the brick
    
    @end defblock
    
    
    @heading Builtin Index
    
    @printindex bi

{} is used to signify that the command does not produce index entries.

Note that multiple def lines can occur in a single @defblock.

I used spaces to separate the arguments to @newdef rather than commas
as this seemed easier to implement.  (We could still change this.)
The first argument should be surrounded by braces if it contains a space.

The only existing line commands that use commas are @node and
@definfoenclose (the latter of which should go away at some point).
The others (@synindex, @syncodeindex, @alias) use spaces or have
ad-hoc syntaxes.  The block command @float also takes two optional
arguments, separated by commas.

Optional arguments are not done in a straightforward manner in TeX so
they should be avoided in any new syntax.  

There should also be a @newdeftype command for defining commands that
act like @deftypefnx.  I'm unsure about the best way of doing this; if
in practice the @newdeftype command would be more used than @newdef, then
it should have a shorter name.