X-Git-Url: http://git.vanrenterghem.biz/git.ikiwiki.info.git/blobdiff_plain/28a9eff5d58a7fbbfd8fc6e450471148511f8c0a..be2af2e5c1ddfe90802a67aa150cf17dbe903df0:/doc/plugins/contrib/texinfo.mdwn diff --git a/doc/plugins/contrib/texinfo.mdwn b/doc/plugins/contrib/texinfo.mdwn index 46aa7acf9..595bd27aa 100644 --- a/doc/plugins/contrib/texinfo.mdwn +++ b/doc/plugins/contrib/texinfo.mdwn @@ -1,6 +1,115 @@ -[[I|tschwinge]] started writing a plugin to render [Texinfo](http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo) +[[!template id=plugin name=texinfo author="[[tschwinge]]"]] + +[[I|tschwinge]] started writing a plugin to render +[GNU Texinfo](http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/) inside the ikiwiki environment. +This plugin is not neccessarily meant to enable people to write arbitrary +wiki pages in the Texinfo format (even though that is possible, of course), +but rather to ease collaboration on existing Texinfo documents. + The plugin is available at . It's very basic at the moment, but will be improved over time. + + +# Issues + +## N-to-M Mapping of Input and Output Files + +Conventional ikiwiki [[*htmlize*ing|plugins/write#index6h3]] plugins +have a one-to-one mapping of input file and output file: +`some/where/page.mdwn` is rendered to `some/where/page.html`. +This can also be achieved for Texinfo files, but is somewhat +unusual there, when rendering them to HTML. In general, there +is a N-to-M mapping: + +* N Texinfo input files (a main `.texi` file, + several helper files (`fdl.texi`, `version.texi`, ...), and + additional text files which are included from the main `.texi` + file, e.g. `history.texi`, `libfoo.texi`, `libbar.texi`. --[[tschwinge]] + +> As far as multiple input files, you'd need to use add_depends() +> to let ikiwiki know that a change to any of those files should cause a +> rebuild of the "main" file. --[[Joey]] + +>> (?) I'll see about a frob to get `makeinfo` provide me with a list of additional files +>> it used for rendering a given `.texi` file. --[[tschwinge]] + +> I guess you'd also have to somehow deal with +> it wanting to render pages for each of the helper files. Not quite sure +> what the best way would be to avoid that. --[[Joey]] + +>> Might it be an option to simply not render the pages that are already +>> being used as an `include` file for another `.texi` file? +>> But how to assemble that list before actually having rendered all `.texi` files? +>> One possibility might be to already render them at ikiwiki's *scanning* stage and +>> store the rendered HTML files into temporary directories, and then at ikiwiki's +>> *rendering* stage simply install the desired ones into the main tree and discard +>> the others. --[[tschwinge]] + +* M Texinfo output files: the main `.texi` file (which `include`s + the other input files) is usually rendered into a (flat) hierarchy + of HTML files, one file per node, see the table on + + for an example. --[[tschwinge]] + +> Ikiwiki is perfectly happy with a page creating other files (see eg, the +> img and teximg plugins, as well as the inline plugin's rss generation). +> The will_render() function supports that. +> +> What hasn't been done though is a page creating more than one other _page_. +> Perhaps you could call IkiWiki::genpage by hand for each additional page. +> You might also want to manipulate each data structure that tracks info about +> pages, adding the additional pages to them, so that they're first class +> pages that work as pages everywhere in ikiwiki (ie, can be inlined, +> appear in a site map, be linked to, etc). Not sure how to do that, +> and perhaps you could get away without doing it actually. --[[Joey]] + +>> Currently I use `makeinfo --no-split` and render to stdout, so that I can +>> easily capture the output and stuff it into the appropriate ikiwiki data structure. +>> If we want to have multiple output files (which we'll eventually want to have, +>> to avoid having such large single-file outputs), we won't be able to +>> do this anymore. +>> (?) Then we'll need a way to find the main output file, which +>> will be the one to be copied into what ikiwiki expects to be the main output +>> of the rendered `.texi` file. +>> Perhaps (again) parse the `.texi` file for a `@setfilename` statement? +>> The other generated files will also have to +>> copied somewhere (preferably into a subdirectory named alike the main file +>> to avoid name space collisions; but need to take care of links between the files then) +>> and need to be registed within the ikiwiki system. +>> --[[tschwinge]] + +There needs to be some logic to establish a mapping between the *N* input files +and the *M* output files. +(At least for web-editing via CGI this is needed: ikiwiki (currently) needs to be able +to deduce *one* input file from a given output file) +Easiest would be either to have *N = 1* +(plus perhaps some input files that are not meant to be editable, like `gpl.texi`) +or to have +*M = N* and have a (?) one-to-one mapping between *input file n* and *output file m* +(which is not possible in Texinfo's `makeinfo` at the moment). +--[[tschwinge]] + + +## `makeinfo` Output + +`makeinfo --html` is being used for rendering. It creates stand-alone +HTML files, while ikiwiki only needs the files' ``s. + +(?) One possibility (which is what I'm doing at the moment) is to simply cut away +everythin until `` is seen and after `` has been seen. --[[tschwinge]] + + +# Bugs + +## Non-functional Texinfo Commands + +Those commands are know to not work currently: + +* `@printindex` +* `@shortcontents` +* `@contents` + +This is due to `makeinfo` not providing this functionality if rendering to stdout.