Re: indexterms in footnotes [was: DocBook Technical Committee Meeting Agenda: 18 November 2009]

[Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>]

"Grosso, Paul" <pgrosso@ptc.com> writes:
> As I said, I'm okay with allowing indexterm as a child of footnote
> if we feel it is worthwhile making that change (that has not been
> the case throughout DB 4.x, so I question the need).

It was, I believe, an issue raised by a user.

> But you're inventing some kind of semantic that doesn't exist.

Right. They have historically been excluded, but now we're considering
allowing them.

> Unless you have indexterm-start and indexterm-end elements that 
> apply the index semantic to all the intervening content or some
> other way to indicate to what content an indexterm applies, indexterms
> don't apply to anything.  They are point-wise things.

Precisely.

> The point
> on the composed page corresponding to where the indexterm element 
> occurred is the point that determines the page number in the index, 
> and the contents of the indexterm gives the index entry content.

Precisely.

> To take an example having nothing to do with footnotes, suppose
> you have a indexterm immediately following a para start tag.  If
> you claim that such an indexterm applies to the para, then what
> happens when that para flows over a page break?  Do you expect
> both pages to be reflected in the index?  If the indexterm applied
> to the para, you should get both page numbers in the index, but
> I claim you should only get the first page number because the
> indexterm applies just to the point at which it occurred.

There are (at least) three possibilities:

<para><indexterm><primary>primary</primary></indexterm> some
more paragraph content that may slop over a page break.</para>

In this case the indexterm "primary" identifies a point on a
particular page.

<para><indexterm class="startofrange" xml:id="start">
<primary>range primary</primary></indexter> some more pargraph
content that may slop<indexterm class="endofrange" startref="start/> over
a page break.</para>

In this case, the indexterm "range primary" applies to a range of text
starting at the beginning of the paragraph and ending after the word
"slop". It may identify one or more pages.

<para xml:id="para">some more paragraph content that may slop over a
page break.</para>
<indexterm zone="para"><primary>zone primary</primary></indexterm>

In this case, the indexterm "zone primary" applies to a range of text
comprising the whole paragraph. It may identify one or more pages.
Note that in this case the placement of the indexterm itself is
irrelevant.

I'm inclined to say that it is implementation dependent what happens
if either the startofrange or endofrange terms is in an element whose
contents floats.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | Endurance is frequently a form of
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | indecision.--Elizabeth Bibesco
Chair, DocBook Technical Committee |

PGP signature