representing texinfo's @defun in docbook

[Per Bothner <per@bothner.com>]

The GNU makeinfo program has a --docbook option to translate
texinfo to docbook.  However, there are some problems with this
support, and I've been contributing various patches to improve
the situation.  (This is because I have a moderately large manual
written in texinfo, and I want to do some more fancy formatting
of the html output than makinfo --html supports.)

One issue I have is how to handle texinfo's "definition commands".
An example is:

@defun array-rank array
Returns the number of dimensions of @var{array}.
@example
(array-rank
   (make-array (shape 1 2 3 4)))
@end example
Returns 2.
@end defun

The actual "defun" line should probably be a <synopis>.
The "body" of the @defun could perhaps be a <blockquote>.
The normal display is that the body of the @defun is indented,
but the "synopis line" is not.

I think there needs to be some element that surrounds both the
synopsis and the body.  This is a logical grouping, which default
stylesheets should translate to div, without extra formatting.
Perhaps <informalexample> or <informalfigure> would work, but
neither is quite right.
-- 
	--Per Bothner
per@bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/