Indix: index‐making for computer‐wise users
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb044648 |
| Published date | 01 February 1985 |
| Pages | 94-98 |
| Date | 01 February 1985 |
| Author | Allen B. Veanera,Susan P. Klement |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Indix:
index-making for
computer-wise users
The INDIX package performs some useful functions. It is ideal for any
application requiring an exhaustive enumeration, along with location
information, of the separate words in a document. It might be used to
generate an index for
a
short simple paper, or for some highly-formalized
document, such as a computer program. It might also have uses for
textual criticism of literary works. But it is definitely not the professional
indexer's dream of software. The claim that it can be used with "complex
books" seems to this reviewer to be a healthy exaggeration. Nor does it
seem able to save much indexing time. In fact it is likely to cost many
indexers a great deal of time to use this package, since they will probably
find they need to compile an extensive list of words that are to be excluded
from the index.
INDIX runs on the IBM/PC and compatible computers. It can be used
to index text produced with virtually any word-processing package, but
the text must be edited to remove special characters. INDIX sells for
$95.
It was specifically designed to work with the EDIX and WORDIX pack-
ages from the INDIX vendor, Emerging Technology Consultants, 2031
Broadway, Boulder, CO 80302, USA. Tel: (303) 447-9495.
ALLEN B.
VEANER
SUSAN P.
KLEMENT
SOFT
WARE
review
C
reating an index is a bit like
having a serious operation: you
really want an expert. Expert
indexers know all too well that
the creation of an effective and
useful index is an intellectual effort of the
first magnitude. In fact, almost all the work
of preparing an index is intellectual, despite
the fact that its preparation involves a great
deal of tedious 'dog-work'. Can a computer
program like INDIX be helpful? Let us see.
An
index is not a concordance
Before going into any detail about INDIX, it
would be well to distinguish an index from a
concordance. A concordance is simply an ex-
haustive list of words occurring in a text with
an indication of where they occur; such a list
may be helpful to a philologist or lexicogra-
pher, but for finding ideas and concepts in a
book, a concordance
is
next to
useless.
Making
a concordance by computer is probably one
of the least interesting challenges facing a
programmer. A computer program that does
no more than generate a concordance, would
hardly be worth any attention at all. An
indexer must carefully read and absorb the
author's ideas and concepts and generate
terms for which the reader is likely to search;
such terms are rarely single words extracted
from the text. Development of an effective
index involves not only a knowledge of the
work itself but also of the readership since
readers or potential
readers
who seek infor-
mation in a text often use vocabulary or
phrasing different from the author's. Accom-
modating this difference, which is the
essence of a decent index, requires human
effort although effective electronic assistance
would be appreciated. In this context, let us
examine INDIX, which claims to
be:
(1) "the
world's finest microcomputer index gener-
ator" and (2) capable of creating "indices for
any document, even large and complex
books".
To
start,
other
packages are needed
Aside from hardware and INDIX
itself,
what
must a user have before INDIX can be used?
First, the text to be indexed must be in
machine-readable form, in ASCII code, and
without special codes for such things are
underlining, superscripts or proportional
spacing. This means at once that
a
number
of
popular word-processing programs either
cannot be used to generate
a
source document
for INDIX, or that whatever document is
generated would have to have such coding
removed. INDIX provides a utility to pre-
process documents produced by WordStar
and is capable of converting certain Word-
Star commands into WORDIX commands.
The FinalWord's global search and replace
facilities easily permitted this reviewer to
generate a code-free, formatted text.
A second (and fairly obvious) prerequisite
is that the text to be indexed must be in its
final format so that the pagination will be
accurate in the index. Both these prerequi-
sites can be met by using a pair of companion
programs called EDIX and WORDIX; in
fact, INDIX has been designed expressly to
work with these two programs. But, as in-
dicated above, INDIX will function with any
ASCII file that has been purged of control
characters for the printer and for holding,
underlining, etc.
A third prerequisite
is
thorough familiarity
with one's microcomputer operating system,
typically DOS, and a fourth is familiarity
with WORDIX. These last two are vital, as
INDIX is not a package for the tyro.
A few words about EDIX and WORDIX
are in order, although extensive comment
cannot be undertaken here
as
this
is
primarily
a review of INDIX. Briefly, EDIX is a text
entry device for creating a
file
and permitting
simple printing of 'what you see is what you
get'. WORDIX is an unusually powerful and
highly sophisticated formatting program
which takes the EDIX-created files and
interprets EDIX-embedded commands to
generate finished documents that represent
a
very high level of page design although the
two programs are not an easy package to
learn. This reviewer had time to learn the
basic elements of EDIX and WORDIX suffi-
ciently to load the code-free document
required by INDIX. Incidentally, INDIX
comes with a WORDIX menu and a word-
4 The Electronic Library, April
1985.
Vol.
3,
No.
2.
To continue reading
Request your trial