Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 17:12:32 +0200 (IST)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: Paul Derbyshire <ao950 AT FreeNet DOT Carleton DOT CA>
cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Info - problem reading about istream
In-Reply-To: <6crb53$s9i@freenet-news.carleton.ca>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.980223170146.26013A-100000@is>
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On 23 Feb 1998, Paul Derbyshire wrote:

> Uhm... the colon with special meaning always seems to be the last; or else
> it is two colons together, and they are the last colons.

What is ``last''?  Menu items and node names are not restricted to a 
single line, nor are cross-references required to have their own lines or 
statements.  For example, where's the ``last'' colon in the following 
snippet:

  There are many variants of nodes: *note like here: foo-node, or *note
  like there: bar-node, or even *note like so: foobar-node.

There are 3 perfectly correct cross-references in this snippet, but 
where's the ``last'' colon in each one of them?

The problem, like SET already wrote here, is that the syntax of the node 
is nowhere formally defined.  The Texinfo maintainer(s) should do that, 
and then `makeinfo' should enforce it.  But if you are writing another 
Info reader, the only thing you can do (IMHO) is to religiously follow 
the other readers, even if you think they are stupid.