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Date:         Thu, 5 Jul 90 12:23:42 CET
Reply-To: LaTeX-L Mailing list <LATEX-L%DHDURZ1@unido.bitnet>
From: N.POPPELIER@ELSEVIER.NL
Subject:      hierarchy in toc files (a different idea)
To: Rainer Schoepf <BK4@DHDURZ1.uucp>
Status: R
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X-UID: 160

While I was working on the proto version of split .toc files, I also
thought of another solution. At first I thought it unfeasible, but
now I wonder. Well anyway: I will put the idea on this list and see
if anyone 'takes the bait'.

What you want is the possibility to have a full table of contents, let's
say in the prelim pages of a book, plus chapter table of contents. In
our (ESP's) books this is quite normal, but also in other books. For
example: Martin Bryan's "SGML, an author's guide to the ...".
This can be implemented by using partial .toc files, similar to
the partial .aux files of LaTeX 2.09.

I have on my desk a book, "Handbook of mathematical logic", edited
by Jon Barwise and published by ESP (North-Holland actually, but
that's the historical name for one of our publishing sections).
This book contains a global table of contents and the rest of the book
is divided into parts A-D. Every part has a 'Guide to part ..', which
is in fact a small table of contents. Now here comes the fun: every
part consists of chapters, and chapters have their own table of contents.

Now unless someone comes up with n-level (n>2) file hierarchy -- the
aux files have n=2 in LaTeX 2.09 -- you can't implement the above
in LaTeX 2.09 (if I make a mistake somewhere, please respond!)

So here comes another idea: what if you still write ALL .toc entries
to 1 .toc file, but add a label to each and every line to indicate
the point in the hierarchy of the document. Something like

\contentsline{ ... }{ ... }{1}
\contentsline{ ... }{ ... }{1.1}
\contentsline{ ... }{ ... }{1.2}
\contentsline{ ... }{ ... }{1.2.1}
\contentsline{ ... }{ ... }{1.2.2}
\contentsline{ ... }{ ... }{2}

etcetera. The first digit, for the example of "Handbook of mathematical
logic", would correspond to PART, the second one to CHAPTER, and so forth.
If you then read back the information from the .toc file, you can use
the numbers to decide whether you need that particular line to be
formatted or not. If this works, you can have tables of contents
on every level of the document's hierarchy (I think).

It's just a wild idea. Comments please!

Nico Poppelier
Elsevier Science Publishers
PSED, R&D Department
email: n.poppelier@elsevier.nl