JezK
Edit File: Texinfo-Document-Structure.html
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.8, https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <!-- This manual is for GNU Texinfo (version 6.8, 8 June 2021), a documentation system that can produce both online information and a printed manual from a single source using semantic markup. Copyright (C) 1988, 1990-1993, 1995-1999, 2001-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License". --> <title>Texinfo Document Structure (GNU Texinfo 6.8)</title> <meta name="description" content="Texinfo Document Structure (GNU Texinfo 6.8)"> <meta name="keywords" content="Texinfo Document Structure (GNU Texinfo 6.8)"> <meta name="resource-type" content="document"> <meta name="distribution" content="global"> <meta name="Generator" content="texi2any"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"> <link href="index.html" rel="start" title="Top"> <link href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" rel="index" title="Command and Variable Index"> <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"> <link href="Nodes.html" rel="up" title="Nodes"> <link href="Node-Menu-Illustration.html" rel="next" title="Node Menu Illustration"> <link href="_0040top-Command.html" rel="prev" title="@top Command"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- a.copiable-anchor {visibility: hidden; text-decoration: none; line-height: 0em} a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em} div.display {margin-left: 3.2em} div.example {margin-left: 3.2em} kbd {font-style: oblique} pre.display {font-family: inherit} pre.format {font-family: inherit} pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap} span.roman {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal} span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal} span:hover a.copiable-anchor {visibility: visible} ul.no-bullet {list-style: none} --> </style> </head> <body lang="en"> <div class="section" id="Texinfo-Document-Structure"> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="Node-Menu-Illustration.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">Node and Menu Illustration</a>, Previous: <a href="_0040top-Command.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">The <code>@top</code> Sectioning Command</a>, Up: <a href="Nodes.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Nodes</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> <hr> <span id="Texinfo-Document-Structure-1"></span><h3 class="section">3.6 Texinfo Document Structure</h3> <span id="index-Texinfo-document-structure"></span> <span id="index-Document-structure_002c-of-Texinfo"></span> <span id="index-Structure_002c-of-Texinfo-documents"></span> <span id="index-Double-structure_002c-of-Texinfo-documents"></span> <span id="Two-Paths"></span> <p>Nodes can contain <em>menus</em>, which contain the names of <em>child nodes</em> within the parent node; for example, a node corresponding to a chapter would have a menu of the sections in that chapter. The menus allow the user to move to the child nodes in the Info output. </p> <p>In addition, nodes contain <em>node pointers</em> that name other nodes. The ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ pointers link nodes at the same sectioning level into a chain. As you might imagine, the ‘Next’ pointer links to the next node, and the ‘Previous’ pointer links to the previous node. Thus, for example, all the nodes that are at the level of sections within a chapter are linked together, and the order in this chain is the same as the order of the children in the menu of the parent chapter. Each child node records the parent node name as its ‘Up’ pointer. </p> <span id="index-accesskey"></span> <p>The Info and HTML output from <code>makeinfo</code> for each node includes links to the ‘Next’, ‘Previous’, and ‘Up’ nodes. The HTML also uses the <code>accesskey</code> attribute with the values ‘<samp>n</samp>’, ‘<samp>p</samp>’, and ‘<samp>u</samp>’ respectively. This allows people using web browsers to follow the navigation using (typically) <kbd>M-<var>letter</var></kbd>, e.g., <kbd>M-n</kbd> for the ‘Next’ node, from anywhere within the node. Node pointers and menus provide structure for Info files just as chapters, sections, subsections, and the like provide structure for printed books. The two structures are theoretically distinct; in practice, however, the tree structure of printed books is essentially always used for the node and menu structure also, as this leads to a document which is easiest to follow. </p> <p>Typically, the sectioning structure and the node structure are completely parallel, with one node for each chapter, section, etc., and with the nodes following the same hierarchical arrangement as the sectioning. Thus, if a node is at the logical level of a chapter, its child nodes are at the level of sections; similarly, the child nodes of sections are at the level of subsections. </p> <p>Although it is technically possible to create Texinfo documents with only one structure or the other, or for the two structures not to be parallel, or for either the sectioning or node structure to be abnormally formed, etc., this is <em>not at all recommended</em>. To the best of our knowledge, all the Texinfo manuals currently in general use do follow the conventional parallel structure. </p> </div> <hr> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="Node-Menu-Illustration.html">Node and Menu Illustration</a>, Previous: <a href="_0040top-Command.html">The <code>@top</code> Sectioning Command</a>, Up: <a href="Nodes.html">Nodes</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> </body> </html>