Re: [rfa/doc] Versions and Branches

["Eli Zaretskii" <eliz@is.elta.co.il>]

> Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 01:54:52 -0500
> From: Andrew Cagney <ac131313@cygnus.com>
> 
> This is the revised version/branch section of gdbint.texinfo.  Looking 
> beter?

Yes, thanks.  But it looks like I confused you too much with my
previous comments about @var.  Sorry...

> +@value{GDBN}'s release branch uses a slightly more complicated scheme.
> +When the branch is first cut, the mainline version identifier is
> +prefixed with the @var{major.minor} from of the previous release series
> +but with @var{.90} appended.  As draft releases are drawn from the
> +branch, the minor minor number (@var{.90}) is incremented.  Once the
> +first release (@var{M.N}) has been made, the version prefix is updated
> +to @var{M.N.0.90} (dot zero, dot ninety).  Follow on releases have an
> +incremented minor minor version number (@var{.0}).

Doesn't makeinfo whine about unlikely characters in @var or something?
If it does, use @var{n}.@var{m} instead of @var{n.m} etc.

In any case, a literal numbered version, such as 5.1.90, should _never_
be in @var.  @var is used for symbols that stand for something else.
For example, m and n in "m.n" each stand for some number, thus they
should have the @var markup.  By contrast, 5, 1, and 90 in "5.1.90"
stand for themselves and nothing else, i.e. they are literal numbers,
not variables.  So @var should not be used with them.

> +@table @var
> +@item 5.1.1

Accordingly, this table should not use @var, but @asis.

> +Since @value{GDBN} does not make minor minor minor releases
> +(e@.g@. @var{5.1.0.1}) the conflict between that and a minor minor draft
> +release identifier (e@.g@. @var{5.1.0.90}) is avoided.

"e.g." should be written as is:

  ...the conflict between that and a minor minor draft release
  identifier (e.g., 5.1.0.1) is avoided.

In general, "e.g." is _always_ followed by a comma (which you omitted ;-),
and so TeX will never think its dot ends a sentence.  So there's no need
to do anything about it.  By contrast, "i.e." is _not_ followed by a comma
so you need to write "i.e.@:".  (Note: "@:", not "@.", as you did in the
text above.  "@." is for the opposite case: when a sentence ends with
a single capital letter, which might make TeX think it's not a sentence
end.)