(texinfo.gz) Using Texinfo

 
 Using Texinfo
 =============
 
   Using Texinfo, you can create a printed document with the normal
 features of a book, including chapters, sections, cross references, and
 indices.  From the same Texinfo source file, you can create a
 menu-driven, online Info file with nodes, menus, cross references, and
 indices.  You can also create from that same source file an HTML output
 file suitable for use with a web browser, or an XML file.  `The GNU
 Emacs Manual' is a good example of a Texinfo file, as is this manual.
 
   To make a printed document, you process a Texinfo source file with the
 TeX typesetting program (but the Texinfo language is very different and
 much stricter than TeX's usual language, plain TeX).  This creates a
 DVI file that you can typeset and print as a book or report (
 Hardcopy).
 
   To output an Info file, process your Texinfo source with the
 `makeinfo' utility or Emacs's `texinfo-format-buffer' command.  You can
 install the result in your Info tree ( Installing an Info File).
 
   To output an HTML file, run `makeinfo --html' on your Texinfo source.
 You can (for example) install the result on your web site.
 
   To output an XML file, run `makeinfo --xml' on your Texinfo source.
 To output DocBook (a particular form of XML), run `makeinfo --docbook'.
 If you want to convert from Docbook _to_ Texinfo, please see
 `http://docbook2X.sourceforge.net/'.
 
   If you are a programmer and would like to contribute to the GNU
 project by implementing additional output formats for Texinfo, that
 would be excellent.  But please do not write a separate translator
 texi2foo for your favorite format foo!  That is the hard way to do the
 job, and makes extra work in subsequent maintenance, since the Texinfo
 language is continually being enhanced and updated.  Instead, the best
 approach is modify `makeinfo' to generate the new format, as it does
 now for Info, plain text, HTML, XML, and DocBook.
 
   TeX works with virtually all printers; Info works with virtually all
 computer terminals; the HTML output works with virtually all web
 browsers.  Thus Texinfo can be used by almost any computer user.
 
   A Texinfo source file is a plain ASCII file containing text and
 "@-commands" (words preceded by an `@') that tell the typesetting and
 formatting programs what to do.  You may edit a Texinfo file with any
 text editor; but it is especially convenient to use GNU Emacs since
 that editor has a special mode, called Texinfo mode, that provides
 various Texinfo-related features.  ( Texinfo Mode.)
 
   Before writing a Texinfo source file, you should learn about nodes,
 menus, cross references, and the rest, for example by reading this
 manual.
 
   You can use Texinfo to create both online help and printed manuals;
 moreover, Texinfo is freely redistributable.  For these reasons, Texinfo
 is the official documentation format of the GNU project.  More
 information is available at the GNU documentation web page
 (http://www.gnu.org/doc/).
 
   From time to time, proposals are made to generate traditional Unix man
 pages from Texinfo source.  This is not likely to ever be supported,
 because man pages have a very strict conventional format.  Merely
 enhancing `makeinfo' to output troff format would be insufficient.
 Generating a good man page therefore requires a completely different
 source than the typical Texinfo applications of writing a good user
 tutorial or a good reference manual.  This makes generating man pages
 incompatible with the Texinfo design goal of not having to document the
 same information in different ways for different output formats.  You
 might as well just write the man page directly.
 
   Man pages still have their place, and if you wish to support them, the
 program `help2man' may be useful; it generates a traditional man page
 from the `--help' output of a program.  In fact, this is currently used
 to generate man pages for the Texinfo programs themselves.  It is GNU
 software written by Brendan O'Dea, available from
 `ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/help2man/'.
Info Catalog
(texinfo.gz) Reporting Bugs
(texinfo.gz) Overview
(texinfo.gz) Info Files
automatically generated byinfo2html