Comment by groby_b
3 days ago
A decent index solves that just fine. And usually outpaces ctrl-f chasing for a given word, because it's indexing by ideas, not words. (If it's a decent index, that is :)
3 days ago
A decent index solves that just fine. And usually outpaces ctrl-f chasing for a given word, because it's indexing by ideas, not words. (If it's a decent index, that is :)
That not how indices work. It is by person or subject not "idea". You can do the same thing but better with a "ctrl-f" search.
Good indices are built atop a taxonomy that is then used extensively to list related taxonomic terms. This will give you direct hierarchical terms (loosely maps to what I guess you refer to as by subject) but also related terms. A good indexer will also exercise judgement and check with the author if certain terms are related and in what way.
Let me give you an example of a high-quality index entry from the Software Architecture in Practice (Bass et al. 2021) [1]:
Availability
analytic model space, 259
analyzing, 255–259
broker pattern, 240
calculations, 259
CAP theorem, 523
CIA approach, 147
cloud, 521
design checklist, 96–98
detect faults tactic, 87–91
general scenario, 85–86
introduction, 79–81
planning for failure, 82–85
prevent faults tactic, 94–95
recover-from-faults tactics, 91–94
summary, 98–99
tactics overview, 87
As you see, it lists a number of taxonomic terms that are merely related to each other and you might not think about Ctrl+F-ing for them unless you already want to search for them. You may come to this entry knowing about CAP and navigate away to analytic model space, 259.
[1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14786083-software-archit...
Not really. An index is also a list of ideas you should search for. Search for a synonym and control-f fails, but the index will have a "see also" for that, or worst case lets you scan for interesting words without reading the whole book. The index will also leave out all the places where a word happens to be used but are not useful to someone searching for the term.
Of course a good index is hard (read expensive) to write and so many books didn't have good indexes.
I got "A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?" for Christmas, by the Weinersmiths.
The index is so good I've shared my happiness about it several times.
If your PDF has a traditional index in it, you can read it then jump to the right page.
If, and that's one huge if, the PDF is structured so that you can do that.
Some are. Far, far, far, far, far too many aren't.
The half-assedry of PDF creation is a major frustration.
You mean like page 20 in the PDF isn't "page 20" in the index? Unless the pages are out of order or extra stuff is inserted, you should be able to simply add an offset. Or worst case, you binary-search the PDF like you would with a book.
3 replies →
It is quite disheartening to see a comment about book indexes being downvoted. In professional publishing houses, indexing is a job done by a qualified indexer and is not as trivial as one may think [1]. Some rather important reading guides [2] recommend to judge a book by its Contents and Index, which are often overlooked in books that were not edited by professionals or were edited in haste.
[1]: https://abookindexer.com/why-use-a-qualified-indexer/
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book
It is quite disheartening to see a comment about farriers being downvoted. In professional blacksmith shops, horse shoeing is a job done by a qualified farrier and not as trivial as one may think.
Not quite. Not a big fan of analogies of questionable fit, but let's try:
It is quite disheartening to see a comment about importance of horse shoes being downvoted. In professional blacksmith shops, horse shoeing is a job done by a qualified farrier and not as trivial as one may think. The importance of horseshoeing for horse wellbeing is also highlighted in certain key equestrian literature.