4.2 Choosing Node Names

The name of a node identifies the node. For all the details of node names, see Node Line Requirements).

Here are some suggestions for node names:

• Try to pick node names that are informative but short.

  In the Info file, the file name, node name, and pointer names are all inserted on one line, which may run into the right edge of the window. (This does not cause a problem with Info, but is ugly.)

• Try to pick node names that differ from each other near the beginnings of their names. This way, it is easy to use automatic name completion in Info.
• Conventionally, node names are capitalized in the same way as section and chapter titles. In this manual, initial and significant words are capitalized; others are not. In other manuals, just initial words and proper nouns are capitalized. Either way is fine; we recommend just being consistent.
• In HTML output, any characters in the node name other than plain ASCII letters, numbers or spaces will be changed in the file name. (See HTML Xref Node Name Expansion.) This can make the URL’s for the pages in your manual less user-friendly; for example in this manual the ‘@dots’ node is output as __0040dots.html.

Because node names are used in cross-references, it is not desirable to casually change them once published. Such name changes invalidate references from other manuals, from mail archives, and so on.

The pointers from a given node enable you to reach other nodes and consist simply of the names of those nodes. The pointers are usually not specified explicitly, as makeinfo can determine them (see makeinfo Pointer Creation).

Normally, a node’s ‘Up’ pointer contains the name of the node whose menu mentions that node. The node’s ‘Next’ pointer contains the name of the node that follows the present node in that menu and its ‘Previous’ pointer contains the name of the node that precedes it in that menu. When a node’s ‘Previous’ node is the same as its ‘Up’ node, both pointers name the same node.

Usually, the first node of a Texinfo file is the ‘Top’ node, and its ‘Up’ pointer points to the dir file, which contains the main menu for all of Info.