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Subject: Question about how to define equivalent index entries


Eliot raised a point that I think needs wider TC input during his review of the DITA 2.0 indexing content.

Our examples of index entries show how one primary term with two secondary entries are considered equivalent to the same primary term defined twice (once with each secondary term). See figure 2 for the same example in our DITA 1.3 spec:
http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/dita/v1.3/errata02/os/complete/part1-base/langRef/base/indexterm.html#indexterm

Eliot pointed out that this reflects some assumptions about how processors must merge index entries, but those rules are never stated. So the question: how precise should the spec be about merging terms?

I ask because in the end, this is really all about rendering -- and processors are free to render an index in all sorts of ways. For example, if I have <indexterm>oops</indexterm> in fifteen topics, I would expect most processors to render that as one index term with 15 links. That said, it would technically be valid for a processor to have fifteen entries for "oops". I don't think we can or should forbid that.

With that in mind - how precise should the specification be when it comes to merging index terms?

For example - how many of these should be rules in the spec? How many should be addressed but explicitly left up to implementations? How many should not be addressed at all?


I'm sure there are a lot more edge cases, so that list above is really just to give a taste of the different things we might have to get into if we are exhaustive about "matching".
Robert D. Anderson
DITA-OT lead and Co-editor DITA 1.3 specification
Marketing Services Center

E-mail: robander@us.ibm.com

11501 BURNET RD,, TX, 78758-3400, AUSTIN, USA
IBM




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