[XeTeX] XeTeX and Makeindex

[André Bellaïche]

Hi,

I am new to XeTeX, and I use XeLaTeX with the command  
\XeTeXinputencoding csMacintosh .

I have tried to use UTF-8, but most of my source files are mac  
encoded, and continuously shifting form one encoding to the other with  
TeXShop causes many errors (you also have to close and reopen TeXShop  
for the encoding change to take effect).

At first sight, the index seems to print well. When you look to  
the .ind file, you see many horrors like anémie à  
hématies, what is the unmistakable sign that the file is UTF-8  
encoded. However, since the \XeTeXinputencoding csMacintosh is not  
repeated at the beginning of the .ind file, XeLaTeX reads the .ind  
file as UTF-8 and all is for the best, or would be, but a little  
drawback.

The drawback is: the index does not keep the French alphabetical order.

For example, the accented é is placed after the z.

What should I do? Would Makeindex keep the correct alphabetical order  
(i.e., the accents do not count) if all the files were encoded in  
UTF-8? Or, in order to keep mac encoded files, should I use the  
command line version of Makeindex with some cryptic options?

Thanks for any help,

André

Département de mathématiques
Paris 7