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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label texinfo</title>
</head><body>
<h3>What is Texinfo?</h3>
<p/>Texinfo is a documentation system that uses one source file to produce
both on-line information and printed output.  So instead of writing
two different documents, one for the on-line help and the other for a
typeset manual, you need write only one document source file.  When
the work is revised, you need only revise one document.  By
convention, Texinfo source file names end with a <code>.texi</code> or
<code>.texinfo</code> extension.
<p/>Texinfo is a macro language, somewhat similar to LaTeX, but with
slightly less expressive power.  Its appearance is of course rather
similar to any TeX-based macro language, except that its macros
start with <code>@</code> rather than the <code>\</code> that&rsquo;s more commonly used in
TeX systems.
<p/>You can write and format Texinfo files into Info files within GNU
<i>emacs</i>, and read them using the <i>emacs</i> Info
reader.  You can also format Texinfo files into Info files using
<i>makeinfo</i> and read them using <i>info</i>, so you&rsquo;re not
dependent on <i>emacs</i>.  The distribution includes a
<i>Perl</i> script, <i>texi2html</i>, that will convert
Texinfo sources into HTML: the language is a far better fit to
HTML than is LaTeX, so that the breast-beating agonies of
<a href="FAQ-LaTeX2HTML.html">converting LaTeX to HTML</a> are largely
avoided.
<p/>Finally, of course, you can also print the files, or convert them to
PDF using PDFTeX.
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>Texinfo distribution</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/texinfo/texinfo.zip">macros/texinfo/texinfo</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/texinfo/texinfo/">browse the directory</a>)
</dl>
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=texinfo">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=texinfo</a>
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