GNU Info

(texinfo)Conventions

---

Next: Comments Prev: Formatting Commands Up: Overview

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

General Syntactic Conventions
=============================

  This section describes the general conventions used in all Texinfo
documents.

   * All printable ASCII characters except `@', `{' and `}' can appear
     in a Texinfo file and stand for themselves.  `@' is the escape
     character which introduces commands.  `{' and `}' should be used
     only to surround arguments to certain commands.  To put one of
     these special characters into the document, put an `@' character
     in front of it, like this: `@@', `@{', and `@}'.

   * It is customary in TeX to use doubled single-quote characters to
     begin and end quotations: ` ` and ' ' (but without a space between
     the two single-quote characters).  This convention should be
     followed in Texinfo files.  TeX converts doubled single-quote
     characters to left- and right-hand doubled quotation marks and
     Info converts doubled single-quote characters to ASCII
     double-quotes: ` ` and ' ' to " .

   * Use three hyphens in a row, `---', for a dash--like this.  In TeX,
     a single or double hyphen produces a printed dash that is shorter
     than the usual typeset dash. Info reduces three hyphens to two for
     display on the screen.

   * To prevent a paragraph from being indented in the printed manual,
     put the command `@noindent' on a line by itself before the
     paragraph.

   * If you mark off a region of the Texinfo file with the `@iftex' and
     `@end iftex' commands, that region will appear only in the printed
     copy; in that region, you can use certain commands borrowed from
     plain TeX that you cannot use in Info.  Likewise, if you mark off
     a region with the `@ifinfo' and `@end ifinfo' commands, that
     region will appear only in the Info file; in that region, you can
     use Info commands that you cannot use in TeX.  Similarly for
     `@ifhtml ... @end ifhtml', `@ifnothtml ... @end ifnothtml',
     `@ifnotinfo ... @end ifnotinfo', `@ifnottex ... @end ifnottex'.
     Note: Conditionals.

     *Caution:* Do not use tabs in a Texinfo file (except in verbatim
     modes) !  TeX uses variable-width fonts, which means that it is
     impractical at best to define a tab to work in all circumstances.
     Consequently, TeX treats tabs like single spaces, and that is not
     what they look like.  Furthermore, `makeinfo' does nothing special
     with tabs, and thus a tab character in your input file may appear
     differently in the output, for example, in an indented example.

     To avoid this problem, Texinfo mode causes GNU Emacs to insert
     multiple spaces when you press the <TAB> key.

     Also, you can run `untabify' in Emacs to convert tabs in a region
     to multiple spaces.