Re: DOCBOOK: IndexTerm: why not See+ ?

[Norman Walsh <ndw at nwalsh dot com>]

/ Peter Ring <PRI@cddk.dk> was heard to say:
| The IndexTerm element looks like this:
| 
| <!ELEMENT IndexTerm - O (Primary, ((Secondary, ((Tertiary,
| (See|SeeAlso+)?)
| 		| See | SeeAlso+)?) | See | SeeAlso+)?) %ubiq.exclusion;>
| 
| Why the repetition of 'SeeAlso' but no repetion of 'See'?

The intended semantic for 'See' is that the reader should be directed
to another term. For example

  ...
  DocBook SGML, see SGML, DocBook
  ...
  SGML
    DocBook, 3,5,7,9
  ...

In other words, the purpose of See is to indicate that the
desired information is indexed differently than the reader expected.

It wouldn't make sense to point the reader to more than one place with See.

Now, it might make perfect sense to have a number of SeeAlso's under
the "correct" index entry:

  ...
  DocBook SGML, see SGML, DocBook
  ...
  SGML
    DocBook, 3,5,7,9
    See Also, XML, DocBook
  ...

Does that clarify the semantic?

| With most processing, you'll anyway be able to get more than one 'See'
| for each entry, just by putting in another IndexTerm element similar to
| the first except for the content of a 'See' element.

It would also be reasonable for the processing application to signal an
error in this case.

                                        Cheers,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | My problems start when the smarter
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | bears and the dumber visitors
Member, DocBook Editorial Board    | intersect.--Steve Thompson,
                                   | wildlife biologist at Yosemite
                                   | National Park