delorie.com/archives/browse.cgi   search  
Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/08/25/05:17:39

Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 12:16:17 +0300 (IDT)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Info (was The DJGPP Oracle)
In-Reply-To: <33FAEF83.691B575B@a.crl.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.970825120707.3032D-100000@is>
MIME-Version: 1.0

On Wed, 20 Aug 1997, Weiqi Gao wrote:

CHRIS> In order to read the docs on info, one needs info, which to use means 
CHRIS> that you need to read the docs...
CHRIS> 
CHRIS> (Infinite recursion: see infinite recursion)

> These info files also happens to be (nearly plain) ASCII files, which
> you can view with any editor or file viewer.  You gain all the
> hyperlinking capabilities when you use info to read it.

That's true, but you don't even have to fall back to such methods, 
because there is no recursion here.  It's true that you need to run Info 
to read the Info docs, but that's not what this discussion was about.  

This discussion was about a *specific feature* of Info, like passing 
numeric arguments to commands.  And you do NOT need to know how this
feature works in order to read about it; you just need a few basic Info 
command.

CHRIS> I don't find "-1s" to be particularly intuitive...

This depends on your mindset, Chris.  A numeric argument is a more general
mechanism than just a direction (forward/backward).  And btw, you don't
have to say "-1s", "-s" is enough (a single minus is almost always like
-1). 

> About the 'dir' file --- is it possible to have the stand-alone info
> reader to search the INFOPATH directories and concatenate all the 'dir'
> look alike files into a virtual 'dir' file?  That way, one can create an
> info file, say java.info, AND a java.dir file, with java.dir containing
> what should go into the info file, simply throw the two files into the
> info directory, and have info recognize it automatically (basically
> doing the copying and the pasting for you on the fly).

You will need to suggest this to the Texinfo maintainer.  The current
implementation uses a different way: they have a program to
automatically update your `dir' file when you install a set of Info
files.  See `install-info' in the Texinfo distribution.

> The same thing can be said about the DJGPP.ENV file, although I'm not
> sure if I like my programs to open several dozen files on start up just
> to get the environment variables right.

I think having all the settings in a single .ENV file is a better
solution.

To answer your question: no, there's no way to have multiple .ENV
files without changing the startup code (and probably making it
significantly slower).

- Raw text -


  webmaster     delorie software   privacy  
  Copyright © 2019   by DJ Delorie     Updated Jul 2019