Subject: Re: bug#75638: [PATCH] Include various GNU manuals in info-url-alist

From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2025 23:45:45 -0800

tags 75638 wontfix
close 75638
thanks

Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]> writes:

> Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:
>
>>> Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2025 04:45:50 +0200
>>> From:  Björn Bidar via "Bug reports for GNU Emacs,
>>>  the Swiss army knife of text editors" <[email-masked]>
>>>
>>> The patch adds various GNU manuals to the default value of
>>> Info-url-alist.
>>> I scanned https://www.gnu.org/manual/ for the manuals which could go
>>> into this list.
>>
>> The canonical place that associates Texinfo manuals with the URLs of
>> their Web pages is the file util/htmlxref.cnf in the Texinfo source
>> tree.
>>
>> I'm not sure I like this direction of extending Info-goto-node-web.
>> It was designed to support the Emacs manuals.  Adding all this stuff
>> to it takes us very far from that goal, and I'm not sure why would we
>> want that.  Proliferating use of HTML docs on the Web (as opposed to
>> local Info manuals) is not a goal I'd like us to pursue.
>>
>> This also makes us responsible for keeping this list up-to-date, which
>> means we'd need to track the Texinfo's htmlxref.cnf file from now on.
>> A slightly better change would be to add a command that will process
>> htmlxref.cnf file (if it's installed in /usr/share/texinfo/) and
>> augment the value of Info-url-alist with the URLs found there.
>>
>> I've added Stefan, Andrea and Juri to this discussion, and would be
>> interested to hear their opinions on this change.
>
> I tend to agree with Eli.
>
> Now, I do think it's occasionally useful to be able to copy manuals to
> share the link online, with non-Emacs colleagues, etc.  However, our own
> manuals is one thing, but this introduces a large number of links that
> will need to be checked, and kept current.
>
> We already have tons and tons on our plate, and I'm reluctant to accept
> more without solid reasons.  A minor convenience command like this one
> doesn't strike me as such a reason.
>
> It seems to me that if a database like this is to be provided, it would
> perhaps be better if it was provided by the Texinfo people, behind an
> interface along the lines of
>
>     info --get-url "(emacs) Top"
>
> Then we could build on top of that.  Perhaps this should be taken to the
> Texinfo people?
>
> Meanwhile, this addition (which, again, I think would be occasionally
> useful) might be a better fit for GNU ELPA, assuming that Björn or
> someone else agrees to maintain it.

No further comments within 2 weeks, so I'm closing this bug report as
wontfix.