Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 20:40:50 +0200
From: "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
Sender: halo1 AT zahav DOT net DOT il
To: "Florian X" <dos DOT fire AT aon DOT at>
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CC: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to: <3a3662b5$0$9822@SSP1NO25.highway.telekom.at> (dos.fire@aon.at)
Subject: Re: TEX again and about SET-Edit
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> From: "Florian X" <dos DOT fire AT aon DOT at>
> Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
> Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 18:39:22 +0100
> 
> Why is there a *.texinfo format?
> I read, and it seems, that texi2dvi changes all @ with \ so that (la)tex can
> understand it.
> So, why it texinfo used, and not normal tex?

Two main reasons:

  1) You cannot produce on-line versions (Info and HTML) from TeX.
     Texinfo was invented as a means to produce the docs in all the
     formats from a single source file.

  2) It is not true that converting Texinfo to TeX is a simple matter
     of replacing each @ with a \.  Take a look at texinfo.tex: these
     are the TeX macros you submit to TeX, together with your .texinfo
     source, in order for TeX to understand and process it correctly.
     texinfo.tex is a 200KB file!

     It is true that simple markup is trivial to convert to TeX, but
     look what the more complex directives, such as @cartouche, or
     @multitable, or even @xref do, and you will understand.  And the
     macros that let you design the title page are *really*
     complicated.

In other words, Texinfo is a specialized language specifically suited
for writing documentation of computer programs, and implemented by
means of TeX macros.  It is not a simple transliteration of \ into @.

> Also if I want to use colors, I have to use @iftex.
> or it I want include math things...

If you want the full power of TeX, then write your documents in TeX to
begin with.  TeX is much more powerful than Texinfo, but also more
complex, sometimes cryptic and even arcane.  Get a good book on TeX
(the original one by Donald Knuth, who invented and wrote TeX, is
still in print), read it, and type away!

> Question: In SET-Edit SET wrote a inf file (I think also translated from
> texinfo) which uses colors!!! Green and white!! It is only for SET-Editor or
> it is also a feature from the INF-format?

I don't use SETEdit, so I can only guess that it displays
cross-references in colors.  The Info reader built into Emacs also
highlights various interesting parts of an Info file in color (and
even makes some parts mouse-sensitive: they change their color when
you move the mouse pointer across them).

But that's only a display feature; the Info file format doesn't
support any color specifications.