Re: Displaying images for html output

[Christopher Dimech]

> Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2020 at 5:55 PM
> From: "Patrice Dumas" <pertusus@free.fr>
> To: "Christopher Dimech" <dimech@gmx.com>
> Cc: "Gavin Smith" <gavinsmith0123@gmail.com>, "help-texinfo gnu" 
> <help-texinfo@gnu.org>
> Subject: Re: Displaying images for html output
>
> On Sun, Nov 15, 2020 at 05:12:13PM +0100, Christopher Dimech wrote:
> >
> > But now I have understood the problem,
> >
> > Although the file exists at 
> > ../Ideogr/Ch03b--Chmed/igc03--01--Sicl--CircAmRg.png
> > because the html index file resides in a subdirectory generated by 
> > texi2any, the
> > code got to be changed to
> >
> > @image{../../Ideogr/Ch03b--Chmed/igc03--01--Sicl--CircAmRg,8cm,8cm,AltText,png}
> >
> > Furthermore, you cannot put ".png" as the fifth argument because for html 
> > that will
> > fail.  You have to put "png", without the period dot.
>
> Actually this is problematic as it requires to put an extension and
> there is an error message stating that the file was not found.
>
> It probably should be documented that
> * the file should be relative to the location where texi2any is called
>   if it is a file starting with ., .. or there will be a message
> * the file should be relative to the final directory to be found by
>   browsers.

This creates a problem because you cannot use the same commands
for html output and pdf output.  If html output is done by making
a subdirectory, then texinfo has to generate the the appropriate
modification for displaying the image.  That is the image path
in the texi file must be relative to where the .texi file is, and
not to adapt the code to where the html output is generated.

Using a  relative path should be allowed.

As for absolute path, what is your opinion on having a way to define
the path from outside the call to @image (for instance, to store it
in a variable for when the absolute path is a very long string).

Additionally, should the file type be ".png" or "png".  Texinfo should
stick to one version for any type of document output (pdf, html, etc).



> Probably the way to go in the case of a split manual is to
> * prepopulate the directory where the split manual will be with the
>   images. Can be in a subdirectory.
> * use names in @image without leading ., like
>   @image{images_subdir/my_image}
> * call texi2any with a -I for the final directory, like
>    texi2any --html -I my_manual my_manual.texi
>
> Should it be documented?
>
> --
> Pat
>