[scribus] Index for large book

[Craig Bradney]

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On 10/5/10 4:24 PM, John Culleton wrote:
> On Tuesday 05 October 2010 05:34:45 JLuc wrote:
>> Le 04/10/2010 20:40, Craig Bradney a écrit :
>>> Ok, so thinking about that, how would we do it in Scribus, and
>>> cut out all the manual work (apart from the "conceptual" index
>>> entries...?
>>>
>>> Tell us how to make this work and we can do it..
>>>
>>> thanks
>>> Craig
>>
>> First and more probably easily :
>> Part of the job could be semi-automated
>> in tweaking an option into the export text scribus function,
>> so as to insert a user-defined string
>> in place of each page break.
>> That would easyen the job of exporting to a tex or ooo indexing
>> tool.
>>
>> Then, in a more full-featured and complex way, so as Scribus to be
>> selfreliant : scribus would require to enable to define and place
>> index strings in places required, maybe using a set of special
>> styles (would be invisible)... or rather : in typing these index in
>> "post it" miniframes (a bit as comments in a pdf doc, or html
>> titles hint bubbles on links)
>>
>> http://www.pdfindexgenerator.com demo VDO suggests however
>> that some indexes require hierarchical structure.
>> Not mine.
>>
>> JLuc
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> scribus at lists.scribus.net
>> http://lists.scribus.net/mailman/listinfo/scribus
> In answer to both Craig and Jluc I would propose what I know best, an
> indexing system modeled on the TeX system but with different timing.
> The TeX system goes through these steps:
> 1. Add tags to the TeX source.
> 2. Generate an .idx suffix file from those tags during the "compilation"
> pass of TeX.
> 3. Run Makeindex program to convert the .idx file to a sorted, collated
> and formatted .ind file.
> 4. Compile the TeX source file again, including reading in the .ind file
> and typesetting it, forming the index.
>
> In 2004 I created a stand alone program called "Tyro" that replicates
> steps one and two independently of the TeX program, and calls
> Makeindex to create the final index.
>
> I should note at this point that the two files foo.idx and foo.ind are
> plain text files. So writing them and reading them back is not a
> difficult task.
>
> In the Tyro program (written in Tcl/Tk) each entry consists of from
> one to three fields for the three possible levels of the index e.g.,
> dog
> or
> dog+poodle
> or
> dog+poodle+miniature
> in addition each field can be prefixed by a sort string, to allow the
> field proper to be italicized etc. In TeX speak the entry might be
> Smith, James@\it Smith, James
>
> In theory there could be six total substrings but this would rarely
> happen:
> dog@\it dog+poodle@\bf poodle+miniature@\bi miniature
>
> In the Tyro program the page number must be entered manually. However
> the Tyro program retains the last page number entered in so that
> several entries could be made for a given page without reentering the
> page number each time.
>
> I propose that the Scribus facility call the Makeindex program, but
> instead of calling it just once, call it after each entry is made. I
> also propose that the page number be retrieved somehow and made a part
> of each entry.
>
> Specifically I propose that when the "index" icon or key combination is
> pressed a popup window similar to the data entry part of the Tyro
> program appear and the one, two or three levels of the entry be made,
> with the page number inserted at the end of the string automatically.
> The string would be written to the idx file immediately. There would
> be no "hidden field" or other change to the actual Scribus file. The
> only contact with the Scribus representation of the page would be the
> retrieval of the page number.
>
> Now what does a line in the idx file look like? Here are two taken from
> real life from the file book.idx for one of my customers:
>
> \indexentry {negotiation+Golden Rule of}{10}
> and
> \indexentry {negotiation+agenda}{11}
>
> These entries appear in the final index as
> negotiation
> agenda, 11
> Golden Rule of, 10
>
> (etc.)
>
> Makeindex could be called as a subprogram after every entry and the
> entire .idx file to that point processed to create an updated .ind file.
>
> If it becomes necessary to update or delete an entry that could be
> done by editing the idx file.
>
> In TeX all the entries in the idx file are in page number sequence but
> the Makeindex program does not require this. So the author could go
> back and add entries later and Makeindex could absorb that out of
> sequence .idx file. If entries need to be modified or deleted I suggest
> direct editing of the idx file.
>
> The specifics of the input format and the output format of Makeindex
> are alterable by a control file with the suffix .ist. This file overrides
> the defaults. For example alpha headers like A, B, etc. can be added,
> they can be centered or left justified etc. etc.
>
> TeX/Makindex allow for multiple indexes designated as foo.idx, foo.idy
> etc. on one document.
>
> These are just preliminary comments. I propose using Makeindex
> because the sorting and summarizing code is already written and
> debugged. For more details and pointers to Tyro please consult my page
> http://wexfordpress.com/forindexers.html
>
> Also see the document:
> makeindex.pdf
> found at
> http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/indexing/makeindex/doc/
>
>
>
>

Not going to have time to look at this email this week.. would you
mind proposing something by adding a new wiki.scribus.net page? send
me a mail when it is done.

thanks
Craig
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