RE: [dita] indexing question

["Grosso, Paul" <pgrosso@ptc.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Grosso, Paul [mailto:pgrosso@ptc.com] 
> Sent: Monday, 2006 July 10 14:25
> To: dita@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: RE: [dita] indexing question
> 
> > From: Erik Hennum [ehennum@us.ibm.com]
> > 
> > To follow up on the index range question, we had a fair bit 
> > of discussion about ranges last Fall.
> 
> Yes, we had a fair bit of discussion and still missed several
> important issues related to indexes.  Scary, huh?

Here are some indexing issues I think we still need to answer;
apologies if some of Bruce's or Chris' or Erik's email have
proposed answers to these questions that I either missed, did
not understand, or did not feel we had consensus on.

1.  What do index page ranges mean within the prolog element?

It's best for both implementors and users when elements work 
the same way wherever they are allowed.   So I think either 
index page ranges should mean what we say they mean, or they 
shouldn't be allowed there, e.g., in prologs.  

2.  What does an indexterm within the prolog mean?

3.  Users want to be able to index words in titles and shortdesc.
Are we going to allow this?

4.  Are we going to allow indexterm within related-links?

5.  Whereas a pointwise index term seems unambiguous--wherever 
it is, you index that--with ranges, you get into all sorts of 
questions about what is within the range.  If you put a para 
within an index range and within that para is a figure callout
and that figure ends up on another page, is that figure's page 
within the range or not?

6.  What constitutes a start/end pair?  Can you start an index
range between two paragraphs and then end it in the middle of
a paragraph?  

Our proposal says "Index ranges that start within a topic 
must end in the same topic, excluding nested topics."  I assume
that means an index range can start outside a (nested) topic 
and end either within that topic or a further nested topic,
is that correct?  

7.  Regarding index page ranges specified within a map, can
one start an index range before topicref A and then end an
index range after topicref C where C is a child of A?

JoAnn raised some other questions that I'm not sure I fully
understood, but I'm not sure we have consensus answers to
all of them either.

paul