Re: Viability of text HISTORY/INSTALL/regression README files (was Re: [COMMITTERS] pgsql: Document a few more regression test hazards.)

On Tue, Feb 04, 2014 at 03:28:45PM -0500, Robert Haas wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 1:38 AM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> > Noah Misch <noah@leadboat.com> writes:
> >>> Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> >>>> I wonder if these standalone things are really worthwhile.
> >
> >> I wonder how difficult it would be to make sufficient link data available when
> >> building the standalone files.  There would be no linking per se; we would
> >> just need the referent's text fragment emitted where the <xref> tag appears.
> >
> > IIRC, that's basically what the "workaround" is, except it's not very
> > automated.  Even if it were automated, though, there's still a problem:
> > such links aren't really *useful* in flat text format.  I think that
> > forcing the author to actually think about what to put there in the
> > flat text version is a good thing, if we're going to retain the flat
> > text version at all.
>
> Right.  I mean, a lot of the links say things like "Section 26.2"
> which obviously makes no sense in a standalone text file.

For <xref>s normally displayed that way, text output could emit a URL, either
inline or in the form of a footnote.  For link targets (e.g. SQL commands)
having a friendly text fragment for <xref> sites, use the normal fragment.

--
Noah Misch
EnterpriseDB                                 http://www.enterprisedb.com