KWIC (was Re: Word Indexing using a Master Doc and having non-sequential pagination)
First off, a concordance is not an index... it's a list of words. Indexes must present context, not just the word itself, otherwise they're useless... or at least no better than the search function.
So raise your hand if you remember KWIC indexes. Before there was online documentation--before there was online anything, as a matter of fact--IBM distributed software for generating a "Key Word In Context" index. It generated a one-line record for every word in a text file. The record consisted of the word, followed by the succeeding few words, then a comma (I think), then the preceding few words. At the right was the locator for where that word appeared.
For example, the first line quoted above from Geoff would have generated thirteen records, the first few of which are:
[1]First off, a concordance is not an index... it's a list 1
[2]off, a concordance is not an index... it's a list, First 1
[3]a concordance is not an index... it's a list, First off, 1
These records were then sorted alphabetically, so all instances of the word "a" came first, etc. (I don't recall, actually, if "a," "an," "the," etc., were excluded from the system.)
See how much fun that is?
But seriously, suppose you had a situation where searching was not possible, that is, where only hardcopy was going to be accessible, and where you did not have the budget for a real index. Would a KWIC index be more useful than a simple concordance?
Thoughts?
Dick
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Word Indexing using a Master Doc and having non-sequential pagination: From: K Salm
Word Indexing using a Master Doc and having non-sequential pagination: From: Geoff Hart
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...left as an exercise for the reader--REPORT (long)
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