GNU Info

(texinfo)References

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What References Are For
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  Often, but not always, a printed document should be designed so that
it can be read sequentially.  People tire of flipping back and forth to
find information that should be presented to them as they need it.

  However, in any document, some information will be too detailed for
the current context, or incidental to it; use cross references to
provide access to such information.  Also, an online help system or a
reference manual is not like a novel; few read such documents in
sequence from beginning to end.  Instead, people look up what they
need.  For this reason, such creations should contain many cross
references to help readers find other information that they may not
have read.

  In a printed manual, a cross reference results in a page reference,
unless it is to another manual altogether, in which case the cross
reference names that manual.

  In Info, a cross reference results in an entry that you can follow
using the Info `f' command.  (*note Some advanced Info commands:
(info)Help-Adv.)

  The various cross reference commands use nodes (or anchors, Note:
`@anchor'.) to define cross reference locations.  This is
evident in Info, in which a cross reference takes you to the specified
location.  TeX also uses nodes to define cross reference locations, but
the action is less obvious.  When TeX generates a DVI file, it records
each node's page number and uses the page numbers in making references.
Thus, if you are writing a manual that will only be printed, and will
not be used online, you must nonetheless write `@node' lines to name
the places to which you make cross references.