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Message-ID:  <CAFUtaNF9cqdbkcFf_taQhdJ2m47VNdG=-aSpmjoTBYdvfB9xqw@mail.gmail.com>
Date:         Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:04:24 -0400
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project
              <LATEX-L@listserv.uni-heidelberg.de>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@listserv.uni-heidelberg.de>
From: "Joel C. Salomon" <joelcsalomon@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Indexing (was re: l3doc.pdf)
To: LATEX-L@listserv.uni-heidelberg.de
Precedence: list
Status: R

On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 12:35 AM, Will Robertson <wspr81@gmail.com> wrote:
> Indexing is one of my blind spots in the LaTeX world.
> Does anyone know the current best practise here? Did Xindy ever get
> anywhere or is makeindex still the tool to use?

From what little I've picked up, xindy is stable & available with all
TeX Live distributions. (A few years back there was some trouble under
Windows, IIRC.)

Xindy is more flexible in dealing with accented letters.  This is
unlikely to matter much for the LaTeX3 project, but it seems as if the
`sort-rule` tool used for that may well be useful if you wanted to
(e.g.) sort `\__pkg_func:` under P just after `\pkg_func:`, or group
variables together instead of listing them under C, L, & G.

> And is there a "glossaries" type package for index creation?
> (I.e., I know glossaries.sty is the go-to for that sort of thing;
> wondering if there's an analogue for indices.)

At <http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/32892/2966> (What are the
latest/best practices for index generation?), the packages
<http://ctan.org/pkg/splitindex> and <http://ctan.org/pkg/imakeidx>
are mentioned for dealing with multiple indexes.  Splitindex can
generate multiple indexes using different write streams, or can (as a
standalone program) split a single index into several between TeX
runs.  Imakeidx uses \write18 to call makeindex/xindy — and optionally
splitindex — eliminating the need to remember the correct invocations.

While we're on that topic, a feature request:  Currently, l3doc puts
the index & change-log under `\part*` headings, matching the top-level
`\part` headings used in interfaces3 & sources3. But it looks odd for
standalone packages like my xpeek, that use `\section` as their
highest level of organization.  Would it be possible to add a package
option for this?  (E.g., something like `[indexheading=part]` or
`[…=section]`, defaulting to `part`.)

—Joel