[tex-live] [xindy] TL 2010 pretest: xindy rules do strange things

[Joachim Schrod]

Simon Spiegel writes:

Hello Simon,
> 
> after downloading the latest MacTeX 2010 pretest, I noticed that
> xindy does some strange things. Sorting rules which have worked for
> me for years suddenly seem to have no effect.

That's because an error has been fixed...

> For example, something like this which I use to sort book and film titles:
> 
> (merge-rule "The (.*)" "\1~,The" :again :bregexp)
> 
> This now has no visible effect on a entry of this kind:
> 
> \indexentry{\emph{The Black Cat}}{85}
> 
> This used to work and AFAICS the problem is with xindy.

This used to work, but shouldn't, and that has been repaired.
It must be in the release notes, thanks for pointing this out.

:bregexp are `basic regexps', where parenthesis don't have special
meaning. Unqoted parenthesis as grouping expressions work only with
`extended regexps' a.k.a. :eregexp. This strange distinction of basic
and extended regexps had been introduced by the POSIX standard and is
rubish, IMHO. Almost all the time one wants to use those extended
regexps -- and that's why they are the default, too.

I.e., discard :bregexp from your merge rule and it will work as
intended.

Best,
	Joachim

--
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Joachim Schrod			Email: jschrod at acm.org
xindy maintainer		http://www.xindy.org/
Roedermark, Germany