texinfo: texi2html

Generic Translator texi2any

Invoking pod2texi

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22.8 'texi2html': Ancestor of 'texi2any'
========================================

Conceptually, the 'texi2html' program is the parent of today's
'texi2any' program.  'texi2html' was developed independently, originally
by Lionel Cons in 1998; at the time, 'makeinfo' could not generate HTML.
Many other people contributed to 'texi2html' over the years.

  The present 'texi2any' uses little of the actual code of 'texi2html',
and has quite a different basic approach to the implementation (namely,
parsing the Texinfo document into a tree), but still, there is a family
resemblance.

  By design, 'texi2any' supports nearly all the features of 'texi2html'
in some way.  However, we did not attempt to maintain strict
compatibility, so no 'texi2html' executable is installed by the Texinfo
package.  An approximation can be run with an invocation like this
(available as 'util/texi2html' in the Texinfo source):

     texi2any --set-customization-variable TEXI2HTML=1 ...

but, to emphasize, this is _not_ a drop-in replacement for the previous
'texi2html'.  Here are the biggest differences:

   * Most blatantly, the command line options of 'texi2html' are now
     customization variables, for the most part.  A table of approximate
     equivalents is given below.

   * The program-level customization API is very different in
     'texi2any'.

   * Indices cannot be split.

   * Translated strings cannot be customized; we hope to introduce this
     feature in 'texi2any' in the future.

  Aside from the last, we do not intend to reimplement these
differences.  Therefore, the route forward for authors is alter manuals
and build processes as necessary to use the new features and methods of
'texi2any'.  The 'texi2html' maintainers (one of whom is the principal
author of 'texi2any') do not intend to make further releases.

  Here is the table showing 'texi2html' options and corresponding
'texi2any' customization variables.

'--toc-links'              'TOC_LINKS'
'--short-ext'              'SHORTEXTN'
'--prefix'                 'PREFIX'
'--short-ref'              'SHORT_REF'
'--idx-sum'                'IDX_SUMMARY'
'--def-table'              'DEF_TABLE'
'--ignore-preamble-text'   'IGNORE_PREAMBLE_TEXT'
'--html-xref-prefix'       'EXTERNAL_DIR'
'--l2h'                    'L2H'
'--l2h-l2h'                'L2H_L2H'
'--l2h-skip'               'L2H_SKIP'
'--l2h-tmp'                'L2H_TMP'
'--l2h-file'               'L2H_FILE'
'--l2h-clean'              'L2H_CLEAN'
'--use-nodes'              'USE_NODES'
'--monolithic'             'MONOLITHIC'
'--top-file'               'TOP_FILE'
'--toc-file'               'TOC_FILE'
'--frames'                 'FRAMES'
'--menu'                   'SHOW_MENU'
'--debug'                  'DEBUG'
'--doctype'                'DOCTYPE'
'--frameset-doctype'       'FRAMESET_DOCTYPE'
'--test'                   'TEST'

  Finally, any 'texi2html' users seeking more detailed information can
check the draft file 'doc/texi2oldapi.texi' in the Texinfo source
repository.  It consists mainly of very rough notes, but may still be
useful to some.