[OS X TeX] bbl and idx

[Herbert Schulz]

> On Jun 4, 2021, at 10:25 AM, Nitecki, Zbigniew H. <Zbigniew.Nitecki at tufts.edu> wrote:
> 
> Herb:
> 
> I was at a total loss as to how I could create a minimal example, since everything had been working smoothly for months before this incident.
> 
> It was clear that I had to figure out what I had changed since the previous (successful) compiling.
> I finally found it, though it confuses me.  Attached is my master file for the project (you don’t need to read all the stuff—there’s a lot there).
> I happened to notice that I had commented out the “makeindex” command on line 145.  
> OK, clearly that would explain everything, and once I uncommented it, the index problem went away.  
> But I wonder if you can explain to me why this command goes before the \begin{document} command on the next line and not after it.
> (I am undoubtedly copying the order from earlier projects, so my reasoning—if any—is lost in the fog of history.)
> 

Howdy,

I would guess that the \makindex command checks to see if the compiled index file is present and opens it if that's true and, otherwise, opens the idx file for capture of the indexing commands. I assume this is needed to be done before the commands in \begin{document} are executed so there is some control over which input and output ports are used. Pure speculation on my part.

> While trying to locate the problem, I took a deep breath and dived into my coeur.log file.  In the process, I found a series of error messages which indicate that I was doing 
> something wrong in a different place, and I’d like to understand this as well, though it had nothing to do, as far as I can tell, with the problem I originally wrote about.
> I had occasion to refer to an online article.  I copied (literally—using command-C) the url that showed up in my browser when I open it, which reads as follows;
>> http://nonagon.org/ExLibris/bernstein-proves-weierstrass#cite_note-3
> so I enclosed in a \texttt{} inside a footnote.  The log file indicates a circular set of corrections before it is abandoned: the # is changed to ##, then that is rejected and so on
> until the compiler cries uncle and drops the entry.  So my question is: what is the proper way to enter such a citation?  Even better (since this project produces a pdf file
> meant to be used like an e-book by students) is there a way within TeX to enter this as a link, rather than just a quotation of a url?
> 
> Thanks for responding to my initial question—and moreover a long-standing and overdue "thank you" for all the work you (and your colleagues) are doing to help idiot users like me navigate the TeXverse.  
> I’m relieved to have found the source of my initial error (and would like to better understand the placement of the \makeindex command in the master file)
> and would be grateful if you could enlighten me on the ways to cite a url, since I am sure there will be occasion for more citations like this in the future.
> 
> Sincerely and thankfully
> Ziggy Nitecki
> 

The hyperref package (you already load this) provides the \url{...} command which will be a hyperlink and also gets rid of problems with special characters, e.g., `#'. So

\url{http://nonagon.org/ExLibris/bernstein-proves-weierstrass#cite_note-3} 

should do the job.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
herbs at wideopenwest.com