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- This file documents the ibrowse program. -*-Text-*-
- The H command of ibrowse goes to the node Help in this file.
- File: ibrowse Node: Top Up: (DIR) Next: Expert
-
- Ibrowse is a program for reading documentation, which you are using now.
- ** Ibrowse uses the file format of the Emacs Info program, and its
- ** commands are similar, but not identical.
-
- To learn how to use Ibrowse, type the command "h". It will bring you
- to a programmed instruction sequence.
-
- * Menu:
-
- * Expert:: Advanced Ibrowse commands: c, k, g, s, 1 - 9, arrows.
- * Add:: Describes how to add new nodes to the hierarchy.
- Also tells what nodes look like.
- * Menus:: How to add to or create menus in Info nodes.
- * Cross-refs:: How to add cross-references to Info nodes.
- * Tags:: How to make tag tables for Info files.
- * Checking:: How to check the consistency of an Info file.
- * Texinfo: (texinfo).
- How to generate an Info file and a printed manual
- from the same source file.
- File: ibrowse Node: Summary Next: Help
-
- Ibrowse is a Python program for browsing through the Emacs Info
- documentation tree. Documentation in Info is divided into "nodes",
- each of which discusses one topic and contains references to other
- nodes which discuss related topics. Ibrowse has commands to follow the
- references and show you other nodes.
-
- h Invoke the Ibrowse tutorial.
- ? Display this Summary node.
- q Quit Ibrowse.
- w Close current window.
-
- Selecting other nodes:
- n Move to the "next" node of this node.
- p Move to the "previous" node of this node.
- m Pick menu item specified by name (or abbreviation).
- 1-9 Pick first..ninth in node's menu.
- Menu items select nodes that are "subsections" of this node.
- u Move "up" from this node (i.e., from a subsection to a section).
- f Follow a cross reference by name (or abbrev). Type `l' to get back.
- l Move back to the last node you were in.
-
- Moving within a node:
- Space Scroll forward a full screen. DEL, BS Scroll backward.
- b Go to beginning of node.
-
- Advanced commands:
- k Clone current window (create an independent duplicate).
- c Copy text selection to clipboard (for paste in another application).
- g Move to node specified by name.
- You may include a filename as well, as (FILENAME)NODENAME.
- d Go to the main directory of Info files.
- t Go to Top node of this file.
- s Search through this Info file for node with specified regexp.
- File: ibrowse Node: Help-Small-Screen Next: Help
-
- Since your terminal has an unusually small number of lines on its
- screen, it is necessary to give you special advice at the beginning.
-
- If you see the text "--All----" at near the bottom right corner of
- the screen, it means the entire text you are looking at fits on the
- screen. If you see "--Top----" instead, it means that there is more
- text below that does not fit. To move forward through the text and
- see another screen full, press the Space bar. To move back up, press
- the key labeled Rubout or Delete or DEL.
-
- Here are 40 lines of junk, so you can try Spaces and Rubout and
- see what they do. At the end are instructions of what you should do
- next.
-
- This is line 17
- This is line 18
- This is line 19
- This is line 20
- This is line 21
- This is line 22
- This is line 23
- This is line 24
- This is line 25
- This is line 26
- This is line 27
- This is line 28
- This is line 29
- This is line 30
- This is line 31
- This is line 32
- This is line 33
- This is line 34
- This is line 35
- This is line 36
- This is line 37
- This is line 38
- This is line 39
- This is line 40
- This is line 41
- This is line 42
- This is line 43
- This is line 44
- This is line 45
- This is line 46
- This is line 47
- This is line 48
- This is line 49
- This is line 50
- This is line 51
- This is line 52
- This is line 53
- This is line 54
- This is line 55
- This is line 56
-
- If you have managed to get here, go back to the beginning with
- Rubout, and come back here again, then you understand Space and
- Rubout. So now type an "n"--just one character; don't type the
- quotes and don't type a Return afterward-- to get to the normal start
- of the course.
- File: ibrowse Node: Help Next: Help-P Previous: Help-Small-Screen
-
- You are talking to the program Ibrowse, for reading documentation.
-
- Right now you are looking at one "Node" of Information.
- A node contains text describing a specific topic at a specific
- level of detail. This node's topic is "how to use Ibrowse".
-
- The top line of a node is its "header". This node's header (look at
- it now) says that it is the node named "Help" in the file "ibrowse".
- It says that the Next node after this one is the node called "Help-P".
- An advanced Ibrowse command lets you go to any node whose name you know.
-
- Besides a "Next", a node can have a "Previous" or an "Up".
- This node has a "Previous" but no "Up", as you can see.
-
- Now it's time to move on to the Next node, named "Help-P".
-
- >> Type "n" to move there. Type just one character;
- don't type the quotes and don't type a Return afterward.
-
- ">>" in the margin means it is really time to try a command.
- File: ibrowse Node: Help-P Next: Help-Page Previous: Help
-
- This node is called "Help-P". The "Previous" node, as you see, is
- "Help", which is the one you just came from using the "N" command.
- Another "N" command now would take you to the Next node, "Help-Page".
-
- >> But don't do that yet. First, try the "p" command, which takes
- you to the Previous node. When you get there, you can do an "n"
- again to return here.
-
- This all probably seems insultingly simple so far, but DON'T be
- led into skimming. Things will get more complicated soon. Also,
- don't try a new command until you are told it's time to. Otherwise,
- you may make Ibrowse skip past an important warning that was coming up.
-
- >> Now do an "n" to get to the node "Help-Page" and learn more.
- File: ibrowse Node: Help-Page Next: Help-M Previous: Help-P
-
- Space, Backspace, and B commands.
-
- This node's header tells you that you are now at node "Help-Page", and
- that "P" would get you back to "Help-P". The line starting "Space,"
- is a "Title", saying what the node is about (most nodes have titles).
-
- This is a big node and it doesn't all fit on your display screen.
- You can tell that there is more that isn't visible because you
- the scroll bar on the side of the window has become active (gray).
-
- The Space, Backspace and B commands exist to allow you to "move
- around" in a node that doesn't all fit on the screen at once.
- Space moves forward, to show what was below the bottom of the screen.
- Backspace moves backward, to show what was above the top of the screen
- (there isn't anything above the top until you have typed some spaces).
-
- >> Now try typing a Space (afterward, type a Backspace to return here).
-
- When you type the space, the two lines that were at the bottom of the
- screen appear at the top, followed by more lines. Backspace takes the
- two lines from the top and moves them to the bottom, USUALLY, but if
- there are not a full screen's worth of lines above them they may not
- make it all the way to the bottom.
-
- If you type a Space when there is no more to see, it will ring the
- bell and otherwise do nothing. The same goes for a Backspace when
- the header of the node is visible.
-
- Of course you can use the mouse and directly move the scroll bar
- as well, but Ibrowse has keyboard commands for almost everything,
- including scrolling. These keyboard commands are called "shortcuts",
- because it generally takes less effort to press a key on the
- keyboard than to move the mouse. On the other hand, if you are
- an infrequent user of Ibrowse, you can do everything with the
- mouse that you can do with the keyboard. Just look in the menus
- (I'm sure you must know how to use the menus on this system, or
- else you couldn't have gotten this far...). In fact you'll see that
- the commands and shortcuts listed in the menus are the same as those
- described in this course. You can use the shortcuts either with or
- without the "Command" or "Meta" key.
-
- Two menus are always available: the "Ibrowse" menu contains commands
- pertaining to the Ibrowse program at large, while the "Navigation" menu
- contains commands that move around between nodes. There may be other
- menus; these will be explained later.
-
- To move back to the beginning of the node you are on, you can type
- a lot of Backspaces. You can also type simply "b" for beginning.
- >> Try that now. (I have put in enough verbiage to make sure you are
- not on the first screenful now). Then come back, with Spaces.
-
- You have just learned a considerable number of commands. If you
- want to use one but have trouble remembering which, just pull down
- the menus to get a summary of commands and shortcuts. Some additional
- shortcuts (not listed in the menus) are listed by the "Short help"
- command. This brings up a dialog box which you can acknowledge
- by clicking the OK button or pressing the Return key.
-
- From now on, you will encounter large nodes without warning, and
- will be expected to know how to use Space and Backspace to move
- around in them without being told. Since you could change the
- size of the window used, it would be impossible to warn you anyway.
-
- >> Now type "n" to see the description of the "m" command.
- File: ibrowse Node: Help-M Next: Help-Adv Previous: Help-Page
-
- Menus and the "m" command
-
- With only the "n" and "p" commands for moving between nodes, nodes
- are restricted to a linear sequence. Menus allow a branching
- structure. A menu is a list of other nodes you can move to. It is
- actually just part of the text of the node formatted specially so that
- Ibrowse can interpret it. The beginning of a menu is always identified
- by a line which starts with "* Menu:". A node contains a menu if and
- only if it has a line in it which starts that way. The only menu you
- can use at any moment is the one in the node you are in. To use a
- menu in any other node, you must move to that node first.
-
- (There is an unfortunate confusion of terms here. "Menu" may refer
- to one of the Ibrowse menus at the top, such as as the "Ibrowse" and
- "Navigation" menus explained in the previous node, or to the menu in
- a node. Where confusion is possible, these will be disambiguated by
- calling them "Ibrowse menus" or "node menu".)
-
- After the start of the menu, each line that starts with a "*"
- identifies one subtopic. The line will usually contain a brief name
- for the subtopic (followed by a ":"), the name of the node that talks
- about that subtopic, and optionally some further description of the
- subtopic. Lines in the menu that don't start with a "*" have no
- special meaning - they are only for the human reader's benefit and do
- not define additional subtopics. Here is an example:
- * Foo: FOO's Node This tells about FOO
- The subtopic name is Foo, and the node describing it is "FOO's Node".
- The rest of the line is just for the reader's Information.
- [[ But this line is not a real menu item, simply because there is
- no line above it which starts with "* Menu:".]]
-
- When you use a menu to go to another node (in a way that will be
- described soon), what you specify is the subtopic name, the first
- thing in the menu line. Ibrowse uses it to find the menu line, extracts
- the node name from it, and goes to that node. The reason that there
- is both a subtopic name and a node name is that the node name must be
- meaningful to the computer and may therefore have to be ugly looking.
- The subtopic name can be chosen just to be convenient for the user to
- specify. Often the node name is convenient for the user to specify
- and so both it and the subtopic name are the same. There is an
- abbreviation for this:
- * Foo:: This tells about FOO
- This means that the subtopic name and node name are the same; they are
- both "Foo".
-
- >> Now use Spaces to find the menu in this node, then come back to
- the front with a "b". As you see, a menu is actually visible
- in its node. If you can't find a menu in a node by looking at it,
- then the node doesn't have a menu and the "m" command is not available.
-
- (Actually, a quicker way to see if there is a node menu, is to look
- for an Ibrowse menu at the top named "Menu".)
-
- The command to go to one of the subnodes is "m" - but DON'T DO IT
- YET! Before you use "m", you must understand the difference between
- commands and arguments. So far, you have learned several commands
- that do not need arguments. When you type one, Ibrowse processes it and
- is instantly ready for another command. The "m" command is different:
- it is incomplete without the NAME OF THE SUBTOPIC. Once you have
- typed "m", Ibrowse wants to read the subtopic name.
-
- Thanks to modern user interface technology, this will be obvious:
- you are prompted for the subtopic name in a dialog box. When you are
- finished typing the name, press Return or click the OK button. You can
- cancel the dialog box by clicking the Cancel button. The first subtopic
- is provided as a default choice, so if you want to go there, you can
- just press Return.
-
- You can abbreviate the subtopic name. If the abbreviation is not
- unique, the first matching subtopic is chosen. Some menus will put
- the shortest possible abbreviation for each subtopic name in capital
- letters, so you can see how much you need to type. It does not
- matter whether you use upper case or lower case when you type the
- subtopic. You should not put any spaces at the end, or inside of the
- item name, except for one space where a space appears in the item in
- the menu.
-
- Here is a menu to give you a chance to practice.
-
- * Menu: The menu starts here.
-
- This menu gives you three ways of going to one place, Help-FOO.
-
- * Foo: Help-FOO A node you can visit for fun
- * Bar: Help-FOO Strange! two ways to get to the same place.
- * Help-FOO:: And yet another!
-
- >> Now type just an "m" and see what happens. (Read ahead before
- >> trying this out, as the dialog box will probably cover these
- >> instructions!)
-
- Now you are "inside" an "m" command. Commands can't be used now;
- the next thing you will type must be the name of a subtopic.
-
- You can change your mind about doing the "m" by clicking the Cancel
- button.
- >> Try that now; notice the dialog box disappear.
- >> Then type another "m".
-
- >> Now type "BAR", the item name. Don't type Return yet.
-
- While you are typing the item name, you can use the Backspace
- key to cancel one character at a time if you make a mistake.
- >> Type one to cancel the "R". You could type another "R" to
- replace it. You don't have to, since "BA" is a valid abbreviation.
- >> Now you are ready to go. Type a Return.
-
- After visiting Help-FOO, you should return here (it will tell how).
-
- >> Type "n" to see more commands.
- File: ibrowse Node: Help-FOO Up: Help-M
-
- The "u" command
-
- Congratulations! This is the node Help-FOO. Unlike the other
- nodes you have seen, this one has an "Up": "Help-M", the node you
- just came from via the "m" command. This is the usual convention--
- the nodes you reach from a menu have Ups that lead back to the menu.
- Menus move Down in the tree, and Up moves Up. Previous, on the other
- hand, is usually used to "stay on the same level but go backwards".
-
- You can go back to the node Help-M by typing the command
- "u" for "Up". That will put you at the FRONT of the node - to get
- back to where you were reading you will have to type some Spaces.
-
- >> Now type "u" to move back up to Help-M.
- File: ibrowse Node: Help-Adv Next: Help-Q Previous: Help-M
-
- Some advanced Ibrowse commands
-
- The course is almost over, so please stick with it to the end.
-
- If you have been moving around to different nodes and wish to
- retrace your steps, the "l" command ("l" for "last") will do that, one
- node at a time. If you have been following directions, an "l" command
- now will get you back to Help-M. Another "l" command would undo the "u"
- and get you back to Help-FOO. Another "l" would undo the M and get you
- back to Help-M.
-
- >> Try typing three "l"'s, pausing in between to see what each "l" does.
- Then follow directions again and you will end up back here.
-
- Note the difference between "l" and "p": "l" moves to where YOU
- last were, whereas "p" always moves to the node which the header says
- is the "Previous" node (from this node, to Help-M).
-
- The "d" command gets you instantly to the Directory node.
- This node, which is the first one you saw when you entered Ibrowse,
- has a menu which leads (directly, or indirectly through other menus),
- to all the nodes that exist.
-
- >> Try doing a "d", then do an "l" to return here (yes, DO return).
-
- Sometimes, in Ibrowse documentation, you will see a cross reference.
- Cross references look like this: *Note Cross: Help-Cross. That is a
- real, live cross reference which is named "Cross" and points at the
- node named "Help-Cross".
-
- If you wish to follow a cross reference, you must use the "f"
- command. The "f" prompts for the cross reference name (in this case,
- "Cross") with a dialog box.
-
- >> Type "f", followed by "Cross", and a Return.
-
- The "f" command allows abbreviations just like "m".
-
- To get a list of all the cross references in the current node,
- look in the Ibrowse menu at the top labeled "Footnotes". This menu is
- only present if there are cross references in the current node, and
- can be used to directly follow a cross reference, just like the "Menu"
- menu is another way to choose an item of the node's menu.
-
- >> Now type "n" to see the last node of the course.
- File: ibrowse Node: Help-Cross
-
- This is the node reached by the cross reference named "Cross".
-
- While this node is specifically intended to be reached by a cross
- reference, most cross references lead to nodes that "belong" someplace
- else far away in the structure of Ibrowse. So you can't expect the
- footnote to have a Next, Previous or Up pointing back to where you
- came from. In general, the "l" (el) command is the only way to get
- back there.
-
- >> Type "l" to return to the node where the cross reference was.
- File: ibrowse Node: Help-Q Previous: Help-Adv Up: Top
-
- To get out of Ibrowse, type "q" for "Quit". All Ibrowse windows
- will be closed (on UNIX, only those managed by the same process).
- To close just one window, use the standard method of closing windows
- on your system; you can also use "w".
-
- This is the end of the course on using Ibrowse. There are some other
- commands that are not essential or meant for experienced users; they
- are useful, and you can find them by looking in the directory for
- documentation on Ibrowse. Finding them will be a good exercise in using
- Ibrowse in the usual manner.
-
- >> Close this window and find back the window where you typed "h"
- to enter this tutorial.
- Then type "d" to go to the Ibrowse directory node if necessary,
- and choose the "Ibrowse" menu item, to get to the node about
- Ibrowse and see what other help is available.
- File: ibrowse, Node: Expert, Up: Top, Previous: Top, Next: Add
-
- Some Advanced Ibrowse Commands ("c", "k", "g", "s", "1" - "9", arrows).
-
- The "c" command lets you copy text from the window to the clipboard.
- You must first select the text to be copied with the mouse.
-
- The "k" command means "klone" (we are running out of letters now...).
- It creates a new Ibrowse window, showing the same node as the current.
- You can then make an excursion in the new window to different nodes or
- files, while the old window keeps showing the original node. Each
- window has its own history for use by the "l" command.
-
- If you know a node's name, you can go there with the "g" command.
- This prompts for a node name with a dialog box. Entering, "Top"
- would go to the node called Top in this file (its directory node).
- Pressing "g" again and entering "Expert" would come back here.
-
- Unlike "m", "g" does not allow the use of abbreviations.
-
- To go to a node in another file, you can include the filename in the
- node name by putting it at the front, in parentheses. Thus,
- "(dir)Top" would go to the Ibrowse Directory node, which is
- node Top in the file dir.
-
- The node name "*" specifies the whole file. So you can look at all
- of the current file by typing "*" or all of any other file
- with "(FILENAME)*".
-
- File names are converted to lower case before they are tried; this
- is necessary to be compatible with Emacs Info. (File names are
- generally relative to the Info directory, but needn't be.)
-
- The "s" command allows you to search a whole file for a regular
- expression. Unlike the corresponding Emacs Info command, it will
- not search beyond the end of the current node.
-
- Regular expressions are like in UNIX egrep; if you don't know what
- regular expressions are, limit your search strings to letters, digits
- and spaces. Searches in Ibrowse are case-sensitive; searching for
- "foo" will not find "Foo" or "FOO"!
-
- A description of regular expressions as they occur in Emacs is
- available. (*Note Emacs Regular Expressions: (regex)syntax.)
- Ibrowse regular expressions are slightly different: the meaning
- of \( \| \) is swapped with that of ( | ), and there are no
- escapes to handle "words" specially.
-
- Searching starts after the current focus position. The "B" command
- resets the focus to the beginning of the file, but space and backspace
- leave it unchanged (so they may render the focus invisible).
-
- If you grudge the system each character of type-in it requires,
- you might like to use the commands "1", "2", "3", through "9".
- They are short for the first nine entries of the node menu.
-
- The left, right and up arrow keys are duplicates of "p", "n" and "u".
-
- The down arrow key, as well as the Return key, goes to the first item
- of the node's menu if there is one, else it executes "n". This is a
- quick way to visit all nodes in a tree in pre-order: use Return to go
- down and right as far as possible, then use "u" and "n" to go right
- at the next higher level.
- File: ibrowse, Node: Add, Up: Top, Previous: Expert, Next: Menus
-
- To add a new topic to the list in the directory, you must
- 1) enter the Emacs text editor. *Note Emacs: (emacs).
- 2) create a node, in some file, to document that topic.
- 3) put that topic in the menu in the directory. *Note Menu: Menus.
-
- The new node can live in an existing documentation file, or in a new
- one. It must have a ^_ character before it (invisible to the user;
- this node has one but you can't see it), and it ends with either a ^_,
- or the end of file. A nice way to make a node boundary be a
- page boundary as well is to put a ^L RIGHT AFTER the ^_.
-
- The ^_ starting a node must be followed by a newline or a ^L newline,
- after which comes the node's header line. The header line must give
- the node's name (by which Ibrowse will find it), and state the names of
- the Next, Previous, and Up nodes (if there are any). As you can see,
- this node's Up node is the node Top, which points at all the
- documentation for Ibrowse. The Next node is "Menus".
-
- The keywords "Node", "Previous", "Up" and "Next", may appear in
- any order, anywhere in the header line, but the recommended order is
- the one in this sentence. Each keyword must be followed by a colon,
- spaces and tabs, and then the appropriate name. The name may be
- terminated with a tab, a comma, or a newline. A space does not end
- it; node names may contain spaces. The case of letters in the names
- is insignificant. "Previous" can be abbreviated to "Prev".
-
- A node name has two forms. A node in the current file is named by
- what appears after the "Node: " in that node's first line. For
- example, this node's name is "Add". A node in another file is named
- by "(FILENAME)NODE-WITHIN-FILE", as in "(ibrowse)Add" for this node.
- If the file name is relative, it is taken starting from the standard
- Info file directory of your site. The name "(FILENAME)Top" can be
- abbreviated to just "(FILENAME)". By convention, the name "Top" is
- used for the "highest" node in any single file - the node whose "Up"
- points out of the file. The Directory node is "(dir)". The Top node
- of a document file listed in the Directory should have an "Up: (dir)"
- in it.
-
- The node name "*" is special: it refers to the entire file. Thus,
- g* will show you the whole current file. The use of the node * is to
- make it possible to make old-fashioned, unstructured files into nodes
- of the tree. Footnotes and node menus appearing in a file are disabled
- when it is viewed in this way.
-
- The "Node:" name, in which a node states its own name, must not
- contain a filename, since Ibrowse when searching for a node does not
- expect one to be there. The Next, Previous and Up names may contain
- them. In this node, since the Up node is in the same file, it was not
- necessary to use one.
-
- Note that the nodes in this file have a File name in the header
- line. The File names are ignored by Ibrowse, but they serve as
- comments to help identify the node for the user.
- File: ibrowse, Node: Menus, Previous: Add, Up: Top, Next: Cross-refs
-
- How to Create Menus:
-
- Any node in the Ibrowse hierarchy may have a MENU--a list of subnodes.
- The "m" command searches the current node's menu for the topic which it
- reads from the terminal.
-
- A menu begins with a line starting with "* Menu:". The rest of the
- line is a comment. After the starting line, every line that begins
- with a "* " lists a single topic. The name of the topic--the arg
- that the user must give to the "m" command to select this topic--
- comes right after the star and space, and is followed by
- a colon, spaces and tabs, and the name of the node which discusses
- that topic. The node name, like node names following Next,
- Previous and Up, may be terminated with a tab, comma, or newline;
- it may also be terminated with a period.
-
- If the node name and topic name are the same, than rather than
- giving the name twice, the abbreviation "* NAME::" may be used
- (and should be used, whenever possible, as it reduces the visual
- clutter in the menu).
-
- It is considerate to choose the topic names so that they differ
- from each other very near the beginning--this allows the user to type
- short abbreviations. In a long menu, it is a good idea to capitalize
- the beginning of each item name which is the minimum acceptable
- abbreviation for it (a long menu is more than 5 or so entries).
-
- The node's listed in a node's menu are called its "subnodes", and
- it is their "superior". They should each have an "Up:" pointing at
- the superior. It is often useful to arrange all or most of the
- subnodes in a sequence of Next's/Previous's so that someone who
- wants to see them all need not keep revisiting the Menu.
-
- The Info Directory is simply the menu of the node "(dir)Top"--that
- is, node Top in file .../info/dir. You can put new entries in that
- menu just like any other menu. The Info Directory is NOT the same as
- the file directory called "info". It happens that many of Ibrowse's
- files live on that file directory, but they don't have to; and files
- on that directory are not automatically listed in the Info Directory
- node.
-
- The Ibrowse program uses a second directory called .../ibrowse,
- which contains versions of the "dir" and "info" files adapted to
- Ibrowse (the latter renamed to "ibrowse", obviously). It searches
- any file first in the "ibrowse", then in the "info" directory.
- (Actually, the search path is configurable.)
-
- Also, although the Info node graph is claimed to be a "hierarchy",
- in fact it can be ANY directed graph. Shared structures and pointer
- cycles are perfectly possible, and can be used if they are
- appropriate to the meaning to be expressed. There is no need for all
- the nodes in a file to form a connected structure. In fact, this
- file has two connected components. You are in one of them, which is
- under the node Top; the other contains the node Help which the "h"
- command goes to. In fact, since there is no garbage collector,
- nothing terrible happens if a substructure is not pointed to, but
- such a substructure will be rather useless since nobody will ever
- find out that it exists.
- File: ibrowse, Node: Cross-refs, Previous: Menus, Up: Top, Next: Tags
-
- Creating Cross References:
-
- A cross reference can be placed anywhere in the text, unlike a menu
- item which must go at the front of a line. A cross reference looks
- like a menu item except that it has "*note" instead of "*". It CANNOT
- be terminated by a ")", because ")"'s are so often part of node names.
- If you wish to enclose a cross reference in parentheses, terminate it
- with a period first. Here are two examples of cross references pointers:
-
- *Note details: commands. (See *note 3: Full Proof.)
-
- They are just examples. The places they "lead to" don't really exist!
- File: ibrowse, Node: Tags, Previous: Cross-refs, Up: Top, Next: Checking
-
- Tag Tables for Info Files:
-
- You can speed up the access to nodes of a large Info file by giving
- it a tag table. Unlike the tag table for a program, the tag table for
- an Info file lives inside the file itself and will automatically be
- used whenever Ibrowse reads in the file.
-
- To make a tag table, go to a node in the file using Emacs Info and type
- M-x Info-tagify. Then you must use C-x C-s to save the file.
-
- Once the Info file has a tag table, you must make certain it is up
- to date. If, as a result of deletion of text, any node moves back
- more than a thousand characters in the file from the position
- recorded in the tag table, Ibrowse will no longer be able to find that
- node. To update the tag table, use the Info-tagify command again.
-
- An Info file tag table appears at the end of the file and looks like
- this:
-
- ^_^L
- Tag Table:
- File: ibrowse, Node: Cross-refs21419
- File: ibrowse, Node: Tags22145
- ^_
- End Tag Table
-
- Note that it contains one line per node, and this line contains
- the beginning of the node's header (ending just after the node name),
- a rubout (DEL) character, and the character position in the file of the
- beginning of the node. The words "Tag Table" may occur in lower case
- as well.
-
- It is also possible for an extra level of indirection to be present.
- In this case, the first line of the Tag table contains the string
- "(Indirect)", and preceding the tag table is another "pseudo node"
- whose header reads "Indirect:". Each following line has the form
- "filename: offset", meaning that nodes at that offset or larger (but
- less than the offset in the next line) really occur in the file named
- here, and that the file's offset should be subtracted from the node's
- offset. (Indirect tables are created by texinfo for large files.
- *Note Texinfo: (texinfo). *Note Splitting files: (texinfo)Splitting.)
- File: ibrowse, Node: Checking, Previous: Tags, Up: Top
-
- Checking an Info File:
-
- When creating an Info file, it is easy to forget the name of a node
- when you are making a pointer to it from another node. If you put in
- the wrong name for a node, this will not be detected until someone
- tries to go through the pointer using Ibrowse. Verification of the Info
- file is an automatic process which checks all pointers to nodes and
- reports any pointers which are invalid. Every Next, Previous, and Up
- is checked, as is every menu item and every cross reference. In addition,
- any Next which doesn't have a Previous pointing back is reported.
- Only pointers within the file are checked, because checking pointers
- to other files would be terribly slow. But those are usually few.
-
- To check an Info file, do M-x Info-validate while looking at any
- node of the file with Emacs Info.
- Tag table:
- Node: Top117
- Node: Summary952
- Node: Help-Small-Screen997
- Node: Help2628
- Node: Help-P3588
- Node: Help-Page4348
- Node: Help-M7763
- Node: Help-FOO13183
- Node: Help-Adv13887
- Node: Help-Cross15923
- Node: Help-Q16443
- Node: Expert17326
- Node: Add20280
- Node: Menus23273
- Node: Cross-refs26394
- Node: Tags27050
- Node: Checking28966
- End tag table
-