[texhax] Index in (e)plain TeX

[D. R. Evans]

I asked this question in early March and did not receive any replies. I
still have not solved it, and this has now become a blocking issue, so I
would appreciate guidance as to what I'm doing wrong.

----

I've never had to create an index in plain TeX before, and there's
obviously a simple trick that I'm missing...

After reading the TeX FAQ, my understanding (which is presumably wrong,
since it doesn't work) is that the workflow is supposed to be:

1. pdftex
2. makeindex
3. pdftex

I have a couple of test \idx commands in the plain TeX file, and after step
one the *idx file is created.

After step two the *ind file is created, and it looks OK (at least it has
plausible stuff in it).

But in step three, the \readindexfile{i} produces no output.

Looking at the *ind file I see things that look like LaTex, not plain TeX
(i.e., \begin, \item and \end commands), but no errors are logged -- and no
output either. Reading the eplain documentation leads me to believe that
the LaTeX-like commands are what is expected. So I don't understand why no
output is being produced by the \readindexfile{i} command.

In the main TeX file I currently have:

----

This is the index:

\readindexfile{i}

That was the index

----

and in the output all that appears are the lines:

This is the index:
That was the index

I feel like an idiot for having to ask, but what am I doing wrong?

  Doc

-- 
Web:  http://www.sff.net/people/N7DR





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