Hi, Paul and JoAnn:
The prolog is a container for metadata about the topic as a whole and thus
doesn't occupy a position of the flow. That is, an index on the prolog applies
to the entire topic.
That said, we still need a way to generate a range over the whole topic. Last
year, we talked about whether an index on a container could generate a range
if the container spans more than two pages and rejected that approach.
I don't recall whether we've addressed the question of whether an index range
could start in the title or abstract and end at the end of the topic's body or
even at the end of the body of the last nested topic.
As a minor point, I wouldn't think it would make sense to include the related
links in an index range, given that they don't provide any of the topic
content and thus don't cover an index subject.
If we allow index to appear either inside the prolog or before the abstract,
do we provide a precedent for for moving other metadata out of the prolog? Do
we create confusion by having two places to assert an index on the topic?
In passing, I'd note that some vocabularies put the metadata container before
title. The counterargument is that, with the emphasis on linking in a
topic-oriented architecture, separating the title and short description from
the body has value in reminding the writer that the title and short
description can appear in linking contexts without the body.
Hoping that's useful,
"JoAnn Hackos" <joan...@comtech-serv.com> wrote on 06/29/2006 03:51:27
PM:
I'd like to see Indexterm as a child of topic. It feels awkward to wait
until prolog.
JoAnn
-----Original Message-----
From: Grosso, Paul [mailto:pgro...@ptc.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 4:26 PM
To: di...@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [dita] indexing question
Looking at the 1.1 DTDs, as far as I can tell,
indexterm isn't allowed as a child of topic.
In fact, the earliest indexterm is allowed
in a topic seems to be within keywords within
metadata within prolog.
Suppose one wants to use index-range-start and
index-range-end to index an entire topic. It
seems the soonest one can put the index-range-start
in a topic is within the prolog. But suppose one
has an abstract longer than a page. Then the
index-range-start within the prolog (which follows
the abstract) will not pick up the first page of
the topic.
This seems to be a problem. Do we need to allow
indexterm in title, perhaps? Is there a better
solution?
I think we are also going to have a similar problem
at the bottom of a topic. Suppose the last thing
in your topic is related-links. Where can you put
the index-range-end so that you can be sure it is
on the last page of the topic?
45 messages in org.oasis-open.lists.ditaRE: [dita] indexing question
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