Indexing

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0.2.5. Indexing

[APRIL91: changes are envisaged; see section See multiple-indexes.]

Indexing is assumed to work with the program `makeindex', so you should put a a `\printindex' command where you want the index to appear (almost always just before `\end{document}'). (A LaTeX `\makeindex' command is supplied automagically before `\begin{document}'.)

Roughly speaking, code portions of your document are automatically indexed, and then you index the text portion manually, with `\index' commands.

`\index{<entry text>}' is the basic indexing command and offers a simplified `makeindex' interface.

• If you want just plain simple "foo" to appear in the index, use `\index{foo}'.
• If you want subitems in an index entry, separate them with `!'s [useful].
• If you want separate text for sorting and printing an index entry, put the two texts in that order, separated by an unescaped `@'.
• To put a `!' or `@' in your index entry, escape it with a backslash `\'.
• All other (semi-normal) characters work as is.

I don't encourage trying to have index entries pop out in different fonts -- it doesn't work in plain Info files. You can write devious LaTeX/`makeindex' code on your own...

Code-stuff in text (stuff inside `@...@') is indexed automatically, just like "real code". What actually happens depends on the support for your programming language -- section See Language_specific gives all the language-specific indexing idiosyncracies. The default bare-bones mechanism is that whitespace-free code-in-text over three characters long (e.g., `@typecheck@') will generate an index entry. To suppress automatic indexing of a piece of code-in-text, put a `\noindex' immediately following, as in `@typecheck@\noindex'.

As mentioned in section See magic-things-in-code, you can add index entries for your code by inserting specially-formatted comments (this depends on how well your programming language is supported). For example, for Haskell, you might use [NB: NOT IMPLEMENTED YET (ToDo?)]:

f x y z = (y z) x
-- the next line is a comment that will cause an index entry

-- equivalent to: \index{foo-bar-baz}

--#idx::foo-bar-baz

For a chunk of code, a mini-index pointing to the definitions of the things it refers to (one possible definition of "things:" top-level functions) will be produced right after the code. (For the Info file, as part of the menu for that node.)

COMMENT:-----------------------

The Info part is done; I'm still thinking about what should be done for LaTeX. -------------------------------

[APRIL91: this is one of the things contemplated in section See multiple-indexes.]

At least some provision has been made for "stop lists" for the automagical indexing (I'm not sure how well it works...). You put words/strings that are normally picked up by the indexing into a file, then tell the system this is your "stop list file" (`-s' option, I think), meaning "Don't index these things -- I'm not interested."