[OS X TeX] Indexing with Diacritics

[Simon Spiegel]

On 04.01.2007, at 16:11, Alan Munn wrote:

> At 7:44 AM +0100 1/4/07, Simon Spiegel wrote:
>> On 03.01.2007, at 19:45, André Bellaïche wrote:
>>
>>> Until now, the most convenient way I have found to make an index  
>>> in French with é, è, ç, à, ù, ï characters is to revert to Mac OS  
>>> 9 (Classic) and to use the old Makeindex application (which had  
>>> the ability of dealing with diacritics ten years ago...). (I  
>>> still have a PPC computer.)
>>
>> You might take a look at xindy which is much more versatile than  
>> makeindex, especially (but not only) when it comes to special  
>> characters.
>
> Simon, have you managed to get xindy to work on OS X?  The webpage  
> says there's no port for the Mac, and installation relies on a  
> prebuilt binary.  Building from source doesn't look like something  
> for the faint of heart, but if you've managed to do it, it would be  
> interesting to find out how.

I can confirm that xindy runs on Mac, but compiling it seems to be a  
game of luck. I was succesful on some machines, but not on all.

Try the following step by step guide:

1) get it: http://dev.atmarama.org/xindy-2.2-beta2.tar.gz
2) unpack it: tar -xzf xindy-2.2-beta2.tar.gz
3) go into the build directory: cd xindy-2.2-beta2
4) configure the build: ./configure
5) build it: make
6) test the build before actually installing: make check
7) install it: sudo make install
8) figure out how to use it, but I guess you have the latex companion
second edition in front of you.

If this doesn't work, check out the archives of the mailing list. There
has been quite a long discussion on this.
And a little warning: xindy is indeed very powerful, but not easy to
handle in the beginning. There also isn't too much documentation
available online.



simon

--
Simon Spiegel
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Telephon: ++41 44 451 5334
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http://www.simifilm.ch

"I have never been certain that the moral of the Icarus myth is, as  
is generally accepted, 'don't fly too high', or whether it might also  
be thought of as: 'forget about the wax and feathers, and do a better  
job on the wings." Stanley Kubrick



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