Manual index hand-pagination workflow for the MIT Press print PDF

[martin-henz]

Background

The PDF index can be built two ways:

• Auto-generated (default): latexmk runs makeindex -l <base>.idx (see scripts/latexmkrc) producing <base>.ind, which mitpress/mit.cls inputs via \printindex{<base>} → \@input{<base>.ind}.
• Hand-edited: if \UseHandEditedIndex{} is set in the preamble, mit.cls instead inputs hand-paginated.ind (mitpress/mit.cls:1292), a manually page-break-corrected copy of the index.

The hand-edited path exists because, for the printed book, makeindex's automatic column/page breaks aren't good enough — the index is hand-paginated just before sending the PDF to MIT Press.

Current state / problem

• The committed latex_pdf/hand-paginated.ind is obsolete — the index has improved since it was made, so forcing it via \UseHandEditedIndex{} shipped a stale index on every build.
• It also blocked the Python edition PDF: \UseHandEditedIndex{} lives in the shared preamble, so SICP_EDITION=py would try to \@input{hand-paginated.ind} (absent in latex_pdf_py/), and do.sh clean() would mv a non-existent file.

Change

The default build now uses the auto-generated <base>.ind (the \UseHandEditedIndex{} line in javascript/latexContent.js is commented out). A reference copy of the old hand-edited file is kept as latex_pdf/hand-paginated-example.ind so the expected format is visible.

Manual hand-pagination workflow (pre-MIT-Press, JS edition only)

When preparing the final print PDF:

1. Build once to generate a fresh latex_pdf/sicpjs.ind (the improved auto index).
2. Copy it to latex_pdf/hand-paginated.ind and hand-edit the page breaks / column balance (see hand-paginated-example.ind for the format).
3. Uncomment \UseHandEditedIndex{} in javascript/latexContent.js.
4. Rebuild the PDF (yarn pdf). The build now uses your hand-edited index.
5. Revert the latexContent.js change after producing the print PDF so normal builds stay on the auto index.

Notes:

• hand-paginated.ind is per-edition and lives in the edition's latex_pdf*/ dir. do.sh clean() keeps any hand-paginated*.ind there — matched by filename, committed or not — while wiping the generated artifacts, so an in-progress hand-edited index survives a clean.
• This is a JS-edition concern; the Python edition has no hand-paginated index.