GNU Info

(texinfo)Two Paths

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Next: Node Menu Illustration Up: Nodes

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Enter node , (file) or (file)node

Two Paths
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  The node and menu commands and the chapter structuring commands are
technically independent of each other:

   * In Info, node and menu commands provide structure.  The chapter
     structuring commands generate headings with different kinds of
     underlining--asterisks for chapters, hyphens for sections, and so
     on; they do nothing else.

   * In TeX, the chapter structuring commands generate chapter and
     section numbers and tables of contents.  The node and menu
     commands provide information for cross references; they do nothing
     else.

  You can use node pointers and menus to structure an Info file any way
you want; and you can write a Texinfo file so that its Info output has a
different structure than its printed output.  However, virtually all
Texinfo files are written such that the structure for the Info output
corresponds to the structure for the printed output.  It is neither
convenient nor understandable to the reader to do otherwise.

  Generally, printed output is structured in a tree-like hierarchy in
which the chapters are the major limbs from which the sections branch
out.  Similarly, node pointers and menus are organized to create a
matching structure in the Info output.