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From: pwp@iuvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Indexing in TeX?
Message-ID: <121500002@iuvax>
Date: Thu, 29-Jan-87 09:47:00 EST
Article-I.D.: iuvax.121500002
Posted: Thu Jan 29 09:47:00 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Jan-87 06:50:00 EST
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Nf-From: iuvax.indiana.EDU!pwp    Jan 29 09:47:00 1987


I wrote my book with Cynthia Brown, The Analysis of Algorithms, with
TeX and used automated assistance with indexing. I wrote three macros
that did the following:
1. Put the item in the text and in the index.
2. Put the item in the text in italic type and in the index (in Roman) ---
   useful for definitions.
3. Put the item in the index but not in the text --- useful for putting
   full names in the index and last names in the text.
These macros wrote an indexing macro,
the item, and the page number to a file. The item could
have special punctation to indicate main item and subitem. The file was next
merged with a file of entries that did not appear in the text (such as
``Difference equation, see Recurrence equation''). This file was sorted
with the unix sort command. The sorted file was printed by TeX. The indexing
macros took care of the problem of formating the index entry, so that
multiple references to the same item would appear in the index as one
entry with multiple page numbers.

In addition, it was possible to print proof pages with the index items for
the page in the margin of the upper outside courner. Most of these techniques
were originally developed by Knuth, but after seeing one of his pages I was
able to reproduce them with just a day or two of work. My friends use these
macros with no trouble.