RE: [dita] indexing question

From
Esrig, Bruce (Bruce) <>
Date
2006-07-21T14:08:22+00:00
ID
Thread
RE: [dita] indexing question
Paul,

 

The 
"point" specified by an indexterm in the prolog isn't necessarily after the 
title or shortdesc.

 

We can 
interpret that when the source markup contains an indexterm in the 
prolog, the indexterm is understood to be tied to a point at the beginning of 
the title.

 

That's 
just to preserve the primary method, in which an indexterm that applies to the 
entire topic is entered in the prolog.

 

Best 
wishes,

 

Bruce

  
-----Original Message-----
From: Grosso, Paul 
  [mailto:]
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 9:33 
  AM
To: 
Subject: RE: [dita] 
  indexing question

  
We could resolve the issue this way. The problem 
  with this solution is the case where you have a long shortdesc (which precedes 
  the prolog) so that the point-wise, subflow indexterm in the prolog ends up on 
  the second page of the topic so your index entry does not have the page number 
  of the first page in the topic. So, in fact, an indexterm in a prolog really 
  has no useful purpose, since you cannot guarantee that its effect is going to 
  be the desired one.

  
 

  
So I could live with this solution provided that we allow 
  indexterm in other places that it is currently not allowed (e.g., title) so 
  that a user can ensure they get an index entry pointing to the first page of a 
  topic. 

  
 

  
And once we do that, we would then issue a "best 
  practices" statement saying not to put indexterm within 
  prolog.

  
 

  
paul

  
    

    
    From: Chris Wong [mailto:] 
    
Sent: Friday, 2006 July 21 07:49
To: Erik Hennum; 
    Rodolfo M. Raya
Cc: David Walters; ; 
    Esrig, Bruce (Bruce); JoAnn Hackos; Grosso, Paul
Subject: RE: FW: 
    FW: [dita] indexing question

    

    
From what I understand, the issue of treating 
    indexterm differently in topic prolog vs content was due to the 
    misunderstanding that the content of indexterm in content actually 
    appears as part of that content. Since we have now clarified that 
    indexterm's content is always a subflow, we can treat indexterm uniformly in 
    both topic prolog and content. Is my understanding correct that this issue 
    is now resolved?

    
 

    
Chris

    

    
    From: Erik Hennum 
    [mailto:] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 6:16 
    PM
To: Rodolfo M. Raya
Cc: Chris Wong; David Walters; 
    ; Esrig, Bruce (Bruce); JoAnn Hackos; Grosso, 
    Paul
Subject: RE: FW: FW: [dita] indexing 
    question

    

    
Hi, Rudolfo, Dave, and other index enthusiasts:

A lightbulb went 
    off for me. I think we're conflating two cases here.

In the case of 
    <keyword>, the element is an inline within content and a subflow in 
    the prolog as Rudolfo has stated. 

In both cases, <keyword> 
    identifies a word from a vocabulary. In the inline case, the vocabulary word 
    is delimited within the flow. In the prolog case, the vocabulary word is 
    identified as potential metadata for search engines.

In neither case 
    do we have a base processing expectation of producing published indexes for 
    the <keyword> element. We have sometimes speculated about the 
    possibility of generating indexes from inline mentions (in Eliot's term) of 
    vocabulary words, but I believe we've always deferred that. 

By 
    constract, <indexterm> is a subflow in all cases as Chris has stated. 
    The contents of <indexterm> must be translated, but the translation of 
    the content in which <indexterm> is embedded isn't affected in any way 
    by the positioning of <indexterm>. That is, <indexterm> does not 
    delimit part of the flow.

In the prolog, <indexterm> is 
    specified as serving two purposes: feeding index terms to search engines as 
    part of the metadata and indexing the topic.

Digression: The case 
    could be made to treat <term> in exactly the same way as 
    <keyword>, using <keyword> for words from formal languages and 
    <term> for words from cultural or social vocabularies. That would 
    require adding <term> to the prolog. 

Hoping that 
    clarifies,

Erik Hennum


' 
    src="gif00138.gif" width=16 border=0>"Rodolfo M. Raya" 
    <>

    
      
      

        
          
            
              
                "Rodolfo M. Raya" 
                  <> 
                  
07/18/2006 02:15 PM

        
          
            
            

              

                
To

              
David Walters/Rochester/IBM@IBMUS

            

              

                
cc

              
"Esrig, Bruce (Bruce)" <>, Chris 
                Wong <>, , Erik 
                Hennum/Oakland/IBM@IBMUS, JoAnn Hackos 
                <>, "Grosso, Paul" 
                <>

            

              

                
Subject

              
RE: FW: FW: [dita] indexing 
          question

          
            
            

              
              

On Tue, 2006-07-18 at 15:03 -0500, David Walters 
    wrote:

Hi,

    
      
New example:
  The <p> text is 
        complete.
                
                            
                            
                            
                            
            
   <topic>         
                            
                            
                            
                            
         
   <prolog>           
                            
                            
                            
                          
        
   <indexterm>term one</indexterm>   
                            
                            
                            
           
   <indexterm>term 
        two</indexterm>               
                            
                            
                   
  
         </prolog>               
                            
                            
                            
                     
  
         <body>               
                            
                            
                            
                        
  
         <p>Paragraph that contains term one <indexterm>term 
        one</indexterm>               
                       
  
         and term two <indexterm>term two</indexterm> 
        inside.</p>               
                            
              
   </body>       
                            
                            
                            
                            
           
   </topic>         
                            
                            
                            
                            
        

If the content of 
    <indexterm> is 
    completely ignored when the topic is published as XHTML, PDF or any other 
    format, then this element should be completely ignored at translation 
    time.

The content of <indexterm> doesn't need to be 
    translated if it is only a location marker. The whole element can be 
    replaced with a tag by the the translation tool.

Best 
    regards,
Rodolfo

    
      
      

        
          
            
            

              
                
                  
                  

                    --
The 
                      information in this e-mail is intended strictly for the 
                      addressee, without prejudices, as a confidential document. 
                      Should it reach you, not being the addressee, it is not to 
                      be made accessible to any other unauthorised person or 
                      copied, distributed or disclosed to any other third party 
                      as this would constitute an unlawful act under certain 
                      circumstances, unless prior approval is given for its 
                      transmission. The content of this e-mail is solely that of 
                      the sender and not necessarily that of Heartsome.