I generally agree with Bruce here.
But I also need to take issue with:
new ranged indexterms they add would cause these old point indexterms to
be misinterpreted
With our existing indexterm markup, you cannot distinguish
between use of indexterms and ranges by looking at the resulting index. An
indexterm marks a point, and the page on which that point falls will be included
in the resulting index. An index range marks a start and end point, and all
pages starting with the one on which the start point falls and ending with the
one on which the end point falls will be included in the resulting
index.
Unless one has a fancier indexing process whereby one can,
say, request a bold page number in the index for the most important reference
and italic page numbers for pages on which there are related figures, etc.,
there is no distinction among page numbers in the resulting index.
Looking at the resulting index, one cannot tell if
index-page-range markup was used to create that index or not. A resulting index
entry of:
cheese 2, 5-8, 12
could have been generated by pointwise indexterm markup
throughout the source that just so happened to end up being points on pages 2,
5, 6, 7, 8, and 12.
paul
From: Esrig, Bruce (Bruce)
[mailto:]
Sent: Tuesday, 2006 August 15
11:53
To: Dana Spradley
Cc:
Subject: RE: [dita] Are indexterm ranges
backwards incompatible?
On the other hand, Dana,
This logic could be applied to outlaw any extension,
since every user would have to review every document to determine whether they
had intended to use the extension.
With DITA 1.1, we clarify that an indexterm designates a
point at which to start reading about the indexed subject. The DITA 1.1
conceit is that this was true all along. In DITA 1.0, this aspect of the
interpretation was unspecified because there was no way to specify anything
else. But if it even makes sense to take sides on this, it's possible to argue
that the default disambiguation is the DITA 1.1 way. Indexing practice
typically presumes that an index entry refers to a point at which to start
reading.
For those who wish to specify a range of
pages possibly not starting at the top of a topic, a new capability is
provided that permits such a specification. The specification of a range
generates a page range in outputs that have page numbers, such as PDF files.
In other outputs, it generates a reference to the start page
only.
Best wishes,
Bruce Esrig
From: Dana Spradley
[mailto:]
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006
12:41 PM
To:
Subject: [dita]
Are indexterm ranges backwards incompatible?
After this morning's meeting, I'm starting to
think that maybe ranged indexterm should be considered backwards
incompatible with DITA 1.0.
In 1.0, it is ambiguous whether
indexterms point to discussions confined to a single page, or to extended
discussions that begin on a certain page.
Introducing ranged
indexterms removes that ambiguity.
Users who want to make use of
ranged indexterms would need to go back through their entire document set
and replace current point indexterms with ranged indexterms where
appropriate - otherwise any new ranged indexterms they add would cause these
old point indexterms to be misinterpreted.
Doesn't that amount to
backwards
incompatibility?
--Dana
