texinfo: @alias

Defining New Texinfo Commands

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19.4 '@alias NEW=EXISTING'
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The '@alias' command defines a new command to be just like an existing
one.  This is useful for defining additional markup names, thus
preserving additional semantic information in the input even though the
output result may be the same.

  Write the '@alias' command on a line by itself, followed by the new
command name, an equals sign, and the existing command name.  Whitespace
around the equals sign is optional and ignored if present.  Thus:

     @alias NEW = EXISTING

  For example, if your document contains citations for both books and
some other media (movies, for example), you might like to define a macro
'@moviecite{}' that does the same thing as an ordinary '@cite{}' but
conveys the extra semantic information as well.  You'd do this as
follows:

     @alias moviecite = cite

  Macros do not always have the same effect as aliases, due to vagaries
of argument parsing.  Also, aliases are much simpler to define than
macros.  So the command is not redundant.

  Unfortunately, it's not possible to alias Texinfo environments; for
example, '@alias lang=example' is an error.

  Aliases must not be recursive, directly or indirectly.

  It is not advisable to redefine any TeX primitive, plain TeX, or
Texinfo command name as an alias.  Unfortunately this is a very large
set of names, and the possible resulting errors from TeX are
unpredictable.

  'makeinfo' will accept the same identifiers for aliases as it does for
macro names, that is, alphanumerics and (except as the first character)
'-'.