From: Gour <gour@...>
Date: 2003-02-01T17:58:27+09:00
Subject: Lisp --> Ruby project proposal

Hi all!

I'd like to propose one interesting Ruby project for some kind soul(s) who can
speak Lisp. 
It's a very nice indexing package which replaces makeindex program and can be usedfor other applications. Here is a little excerpt:

<quote> What is xindy?

xindy is an index processor that can be used to generate book-like indexes for
arbitrary document-preparation systems. This term includes systems such as TeX
and LaTeX, the roff-family, SGML/XML-based systems (e.g., HTML) that process
some kind of text and generate indexing information. The kernel system is not
fixed to any specific system, but can be configured to work with together with
such systems.  </quote>

The old homepage is on: http://www.iti.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/xindy/
and the sources can be downloaded from: http://xindy.sourceforge.net/download/.

The author no longer supports the project and here is some explanation why it is
not included in any official Linux distro:

<quote>
-- It wasn't written for current CLISP.
-- Usage of external shared libraries (in particular, GNU regex)
    complicates the build process. Their usage made sense at the time
    when xindy was created but they could be replaced with more
    portable Common Lisp code that we didn't know then.
-- Too many other non-usual tools are needed for its compilation
    (e.g., noweb) that are not part of the xindy distribution.
-- Too much manual intervention is needed. It doesn't work as
    "./configure; make; make install".
</quote>

Those non-English users who are creating indexes & glossaries for their documents
knows the pain to get proper sorting for non-English texts.

Xindy is very flexible program, but unfortunetely doesn't have bright future 
without further development.

So, my proposal is if some kind soul is enthusiastic to take a look on the Lisp
sources and determine if it is worth to try to port Xindy to Ruby (I'm talking 
about Ruby port since I just fall in love with the language and consider it very
clean so that it will be possible to easily extend Xindy with new features) and/ortry to bring Ruby port into some rudimentary state where it can be further
extended.

For example, there is makerules module for Xindy which produces sort rules for 
many languages and it can be easily adapted - I recently finished one book where 
I used Xindy to sort index & glossary for English & Croatian text mixed with
Sanskrit diacritics - I just added rules for Sanskrit diacritics and that's it!

Unfortunately I don't speak "Lisp", and I'm in the process of learning Ruby, but
I'm ready to help according to my skills.

I apologize if I sound too rude by proposing a project for someone else, but maybesomeone can see some interest to contribute to Ruby and much wider community one
very useful project.

Any feedback?

Sincerely,
Gour 

-- 
Gour
gour@mail.inet.hr
Registered Linux User #278493