texinfo 4.7 available

[Robin Fairbairns]

Karl Berry writes:

> I have released version 4.7 of Texinfo, the GNU documentation format,
> with supporting programs.  The NEWS is below.
> 
> You can get it by anonymous ftp from
>   ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/texinfo-4.7.tar.gz
>   ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/texinfo-4.7.tar.bz2
> and its mirrors worldwide (see http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html).
> It will also be available through CTAN and its mirrors, for example,
> http://www.ctan.org/macros/texinfo.
> 
> The Texinfo home page is http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/.
> 
> Please email bugs or suggestions to bug-texinfo at gnu.org,
> general discussion to help-texinfo at gnu.org.
> 
> Peace,
> karl at gnu.org
> 
> 
> 4.7 (9 April 2004)
> * Language:
>   . new commands @float, @caption, @shortcaption, @listoffloats for
>     initial implementation of floating material (figures, tables, etc).
>     Ironically, they do not yet actually float anywhere.
>   . new commands @docbook, @ifdocbook, @ifnotdocbook for conditional Docbook.
>   . new commands @ordf{} and @ordm{} for Spanish feminine/masculine ordinals.
>   . new commands @deftypecv[x] for class variables in typed OO languages.
>   . new command @registeredsymbol for the r-in-a-circle symbol.
>   . new command @headitem to make a heading row in @multitable.
>   . new command @LaTeX{} for the LaTeX logo.
>   . new command @comma{} to avoid comma-parsing problems.
>   . @url is now a synonym for @uref; new command @indicateurl has the
>     old meaning of just displaying a url as text.
>   . @quotation now accepts an optional argument for labelling the text
>       as a `Note', `Tip', etc.
>   . @defun (et al.) heading lines can now be continued with a lone @.
>   . @acronym accepts an optional argument for the meaning of the acronym.
> * makeinfo:
>   . New environment variable TEXINFO_OUTPUT_FORMAT determines the output
>     format at runtime, if no options are specified.
>   . New option --plaintext, equivalent to --no-headers with Info output.
>   . All outputs:
>     - sections are numbered by default.
>   . Info output:
>     - punctuation is inserted after @pxref and @ref, if needed to make
>       cross-references valid.
>     - line numbers included in index menus, so Info readers can go to
>       the exact line of an entry, not just a node.  Also in plaintext output.
>     - ^@^H[index^@^H] cookie included in index menus, so Info readers
>       can handle the ] etc. commands better.
>   . HTML output:
>     - new algorithm for cross-references to other manuals, for maximum
>       portability and stability.
>     - include node name in <title> with split output.
>     - @multicolumn fractions become percentages.
>     - entities used for bullets, quotes, dashes, and others.
>     - index entries are links to the exact locations.
>     - <h4> and <h5> used for @sub and @subsubsections again.
>     - accented dotless i supported.
>   . XML output: many new tags and structure to preserve more source features.
>   . Docbook output:
>     - upgraded DTD to Docbook XML 4.2, no longer using Docbook SGML.
>     - improved translation in general, for instance:
>     - line annotations and marked quotations.
> * texi2dvi:
>   . if available, use etex (pdfetex if --pdf) by default.
>   . if the input file includes thumbpdf.sty (for LaTeX), then run thumbpdf.
>   . more output if --debug.
> * texinfo.tex:
>   . @defun names are now printed in typewriter (instead of bold), and
>     within the arguments, @var text is printed in slanted typewriter.
>   . @tex code is executed inside a TeX group, so that any changes must
>     be prefixed with \global (or the equivalent) to be effective.  (This
>     change was actually made years ago, but never made it into the NEWS.)
> * info:
>   . new option --where (aka --location, -w) to report where an Info file
>     would be found, instead of reading it.
>   . by default, output ANSI terminal escape sequences as-is; new option
>     --no-raw-escapes overrides this.
>   . use the newly-generated index line numbers.
> * Distribution:
>   . new script gendocs.sh (not installed), for use by GNU maintainers in
>     getting their manuals on the GNU web site.  Documented in
>     maintain.texi (http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain_toc.html).
>   . Most code uses ANSI C prototypes, to some extent.
>   . New translation: nb.
>   . automake 1.8.3, autoconf 2.59, gettext 0.14.1.

the ctan location is in fact macros/texinfo, so the ctan url karl quotes
should in fact be http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/texinfo.

Robin Fairbairns

For the CTAN team