RE: [dita] indexing question

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

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Wong [mailto:cwong@idiominc.com] 
> Sent: Tuesday, 2006 July 18 09:19
> To: Grosso, Paul; dita@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: RE: [dita] indexing question

> 
> 5 and 6: an index range is just a range: any content between two index
> range markers constitute the index range. An index range 
> starts where it
> starts and ends where it ends. That includes figures, part or whole
> paragraphs ... anything. That is the point of the index range marker,
> that it can express index ranges in a manner orthogonal of the XML
> structure. I don't see the ambiguity: why should anything NOT be in an
> index range if so delineated?

Suppose I have something like (pseudocode, not actual tagging used):

  start index range
  para1
  image
  para2
  end index range

Now suppose, because my stylesheet says all images get floated to 
the end of the topic they are in, para1 starts on page 15, para2
ends on page 16, and the image floats to page 22.

What index entry should be generated?  One with 15-16 for the page?
Or one with 15-16,22 for the page?

I see the ambiguity.

> 
> 7: I'd answer "yes": that seems the obvious interpretation. An index
> range starts where it starts, and ends where it ends.

On questions 6 and 7, the issue here really is whether we want to allow
index ranges that are completely asynchronous to both the markup
structure
and even the file structure.  It can be both a processing problem as
well
as a debugging nightmare (for the user) if we allow such asynchronicity.
Imagine a user mistakening switching index-range-start and
index-range-end
(so the end comes before the start) in a topic and then having an index
range surrounding that topic in the map file.  If we allow the "end"
within the topic to end to "start" in the map file, there will be no
errors, but the result is not going to be what the user wanted.

So one other obvious interpretation is that it is an error for an "end"
not in the map file to end a "start" in the map file.

paul 

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Grosso, Paul [mailto:pgrosso@ptc.com] 
> Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 9:27 AM
> To: dita@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: RE: [dita] indexing question
> 

> 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?