Re: @codequote* commands

[Gavin Smith]

On 2 May 2015 at 10:44, Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> wrote:
> These commands are new in Texinfo 5.0 and later, and cause errors in
> 4.x series.  The corresponding "@set txicodequote*" variables, which
> are available since v4.11, are only hinted at in the Texinfo manual:
>
>     This feature used to be controlled by '@set' variable names; they are
>   still supported, but the command interface is preferred.
>
> Why aren't the variable names mentioned explicitly in the manual?  If
> a manual needs to be acceptable to both v4.x and v5.x series
> (something that still happens quite a lot, given the slow speed of
> makeinfo 5.x), the authors will have hard time discovering those
> variables' names.
>
> Is it OK to mention the variables as well, or are they omitted on
> purpose?

I don't know why they were omitted but I guess it would be to
discourage their use. It's inconsistent to have a @set variable
setting an option this way.

They could be documented for the sake of interpreting Texinfo files
that use them. (And also to discourage naming a @set variable
"txicodequoteundirected", although it's unlikely that someone would do
that by accident.)

I don't think it's the job of the manual to explain how to write files
that will be processable by earlier versions. If someone wants to use
an earlier version they should use the older manual for that version.
It would clutter the manual terribly giving the history of every
feature.