> Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 13:21:43 -0400
> From: Karl Berry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Why was the support I provided for splitting HTML output either
> dropped or suppressed (I'm not sure which) in makeinfo 4.0?
It wasn't dropped, the code is still there, but the if clauses that
activate it were made to never fire.
> Sorry. Probably because it did not apply after all the other patches
> that had been done and I wanted to make the release that had already
> been delayed far too long.
Actually, IIRC, the main reason was that we couldn't in time resolve
the technical problems that splitting an HTML file exposes. The main
problems were (again, IIRC): (1) how to transform the
cross-references, including to other Texinfo documents (assuming those
were also converted to HTML), and (2) how to make splitting work right
even when makeinfo does an extra pass (e.g., to support @contents in
the beginning of the document).
The second group of problems was the reason that I suggested a
separate program to implement the split stage. I even sent to Karl a
program I wrote for the DJGPP FAQ list that splits an HTML document by
nodes. (Dave, if you are interested, I can send it to you as well.)
However, since Texinfo 4.0 was already very late, we never finalized
these issues.
There were other problems as well (e.g., what file-naming scheme to
use for the split files), but I think the above are the main ones.
I still think that splitting should be done in a separate pass, even
if the code to do that is added to makeinfo.
> I'll check/hack development source concerning them if someone can tell
> me how to get it these days.
>
> Depressingly, I haven't made any changes since 4.0.
In addition, I don't think I saw any substantial HTML-related patches
posted to bug-texinfo. So I think, Dave, you could simply begin with
the official Texinfo 4.0 sources.
If you intend to work on splitting, I do suggest to discuss the
relevant problems first.
