texinfo writer uses @textsuperscript instead of just @sup

[doronbehar]

Version:

pandoc 2.2.1
Compiled with pandoc-types 1.17.4.2, texmath 0.11, skylighting 0.7.0.2
Default user data directory: /home/doron/.pandoc
Copyright (C) 2006-2018 John MacFarlane
Web:  http://pandoc.org
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is no warranty, not even for merchantability or fitness
for a particular purpose.

I've converted a mediawiki text from the Arch Linux WiKi into texinfo using pandoc inorder to run makeinfo on it. I recieved these errors from makeinfo:

2bwm.texinfo:20: unknown command `textsuperscript'
2bwm.texinfo:20: misplaced {
2bwm.texinfo:20: misplaced }
2bwm.texinfo:40: unknown command `textsuperscript'
2bwm.texinfo:40: misplaced {
2bwm.texinfo:40: misplaced }

While line 20 is:

@uref{https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/2bwm/,2bwm}@textsuperscript{AUR}

And line 40 is:

@uref{https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/9menu/,9menu}@textsuperscript{AUR}

I'm reporting this as a bug although it is compiled into pandoc like this by design. The official documentation for the texinfo format by GNU says that @sub and @sup are used supposed to be used: https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/manual/texinfo/texinfo.html#Inserting-Subscripts-and-Superscripts

EDIT:

After reading a little bit about the texinfo format I understand that I should use the --standalone flag in order for the @textsuperscript macro to be defined. But still, an unwanted warning for the same line as above appears when running makeinfo:

out/2bwm.texinfo:55: warning: @iftex should only appear at the beginning of a line (possibly involving @textsuperscript)

I think we should just use @sup and @sub for this.

[link2xt]

Here is the macro, for reference:

@macro textsuperscript{text}
@iftex
@textsuperscript{\text\}
@end iftex
@ifnottex
^@{\text\@}
@end ifnottex
@end macro

I have not used texinfo before, can someone explain what this macro is doing? Why does it call itself recursively and what ^@ means? Also it does not work for me with texi2pdf, there is no superscript, the text is simply indented or something.

[link2xt]

Guess it is not a recursive call but a LaTeX command. Anyway, going to change this to @sup and @sub.

[jgm]

The texinfo writer and template are very old, and my memory doesn't help me here, but there must have been some reason that complex macro was used. Until we can reconstruct what that was, I'm a bit nervous about making this change.

Have you tested the new code with output to both tex and non-tex backends?

[jgm]

OK, here's the answer -- I checked the texinfo changelog:

2014-12-02  Karl Berry  <karl@gnu.org>

	* doc/texinfo.tex (\sub, \sup, \mathopsup): new commands @sub and @sup.
	(\ptexsp, \ptexsup): save and restore in \tex.

The pandoc texinfo writer dates to 2008 or something. So that's why there were custom macros defined. I think this change is fine.