[XeTeX] arabic

[Kamal Abdali]

HI Houda and Ross,

Ross is of the opinion that the job of indexing in Arabic can be done with
makeindex. I did a little search and reading, and concluded that the job is
not one that can be done in an afternoon (or two). At least not without some
hints from Ross (and others).

For the xindy route, there are files that accompany the xepersian package.
Since the Persian alphabet is a superset of the Arabic one, those files
should suffice without change to create an Arabic index (assuming that they
work properly in Persian).  Since the Urdu alphabet is a superset of the
Persian one, the Persian xindy still needs to be generalized somewhat. Sorry
to keep inserting Urdu in the discussion, but that concerns me most these
days. Moreover, a solution for Urdu should also work for Arabic. As I've
never used xindy before, the task again seems much more complex than an
afternoon's hacking :-).

The 2-column format is standard for indexing via makeindex.

Kamal

On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 10:02, houda araj <h_araj at hotmail.com> wrote:

>  Hello Kamal
>
> Could you give me more instruction on how to define an ist file. A working
> example would be fine.
> I have to create two columns index.
>
> Thanks
>
> Houda
>
>
> > From: ross.moore at mq.edu.au
> > Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 16:01:54 +1100
>
> > To: xetex at tug.org
> > Subject: Re: [XeTeX] arabic
> >
> > Hello Kamal,
> >
> > On 22/10/2010, at 12:39 PM, Kamal Abdali wrote:
> >
> > > On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 03:17, Ulrike Fischer <news3 at nililand.de>
> wrote:
> > > Am Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:20:47 -0400 schrieb Kamal Abdali:
> > > >...
> > > > Makeindex reads the idx file for sorting the indices. Probably, it
> finds the
> > > > non-Western numerals undecipherable.
> > >
> > > Yes, makeindex needs to understand numbers to be able to build page
> > > ranges and sort the page numbers. As default it understands the
> > > standard digits, alphabetic and roman page numbers.
> > >
> > > If you would redefine \thepage to e.g. \renewcommand\thepage{Page
> > > \arabic{page}} you would run into problems in an english document
> > > too.
> > >
> > > I would suggest that you try xindy.
> > >
> > >
> > > Thanks, Ulrike, for the xindy recommendation. A recent tendency in Urdu
> publications (which concern me most) is to use Western numerals, so
> Makeindex will work partially. But in general xindy will be unavoidable.
> >
> > Well, I don't think it is unavoidable at all.
> >
> > You can define your own .ist (index-style) file for use
> > with makeindex .
> > Then you can ensure that a LaTeX macro reads the page-number
> > and converts it into the language form that you desire.
> >
> > Makeindex is extremely flexible, just as is Xindy.
> > You may need a bit of experience writing the correct LaTeX
> > macro to use, and have it applied appropriately, just as you'll
> > need to gain experience using Xindy, if you go down that path.
> >
> >
> > >
> > > Kamal Abdali
> >
> >
> > Hope this helps,
> >
> > Ross
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Ross Moore ross.moore at mq.edu.au
> > Mathematics Department office: E7A-419
> > Macquarie University tel: +61 (0)2 9850 8955
> > Sydney, Australia 2109 fax: +61 (0)2 9850 8114
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