[texhax] index entries in verbatim text?

Ilya N. Golubev gin at mo.msk.ru
Fri Oct 17 16:43:22 CEST 2008


In latex document have large (possibly spanning many pages) stretches
of verbatim text, something like program source, normally to be
written inside `verbatim' environment.  Index entries are to point to
locations in the middle of such text.

Is there a way to write `\index' commands to achieve this?

They certainly must not insert vertical spacing or otherwise alter the
printed appearance of verbatim text.  So the trivial way, splitting
`verbatim',

\begin{verbatim}
TEXT BEFORE
LINE TO POINT TO
\end{verbatim}
\index{KEY}
\begin{verbatim}
TEXT AFTER
\end{verbatim}

does not work.  Between these `verbatim' environments vertical spacing
is inserted.  It does not look like just

\begin{verbatim}
TEXT BEFORE
LINE TO POINT TO
TEXT AFTER
\end{verbatim}

`\verb' command refuses to process multiple- line stretches of text.
So at best have to use it on each and every line of text to format.
This certainly allows to put `\index' command at arbitrary point
without breaking anything.

And this is also not for regular use.  Not only such a `\verb' quoting
tedious and error- prone.  The text to be formatted verbatim is
generally program code, its language may be pretty hairy, may use just
any character, so selecting quote character for `\verb' command is
hard to automate.

`alltt' environment is checked to be useless.  `\index' in it is
ignored, leaves nothing in index.  (Inclined to consider this a bug of
the `alltt' package, defeating the very purpose of it.)

Is there environment like `verbatim' that one can split arbitrarily so
that `\index' will point to arbitrary line in it?


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