Numbering Document Components

Michael A. Harrison and Ethan V. Munson

Abstract

Numbering document components such as sections, subsections, figures and equations gives each component a unique identifier and helps the user locate the component when it is cross-referenced. This report discusses ways in which such numbering can be described and proposes a simple paradigm for declarative specification of how components should be numbered. The class of algorithms for incremental update of component numbers is studied and the ``best'' such algorithm is developed in detail.

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Published at UC Berkeley Computer Science Technical Report UCB/CSD-90-568. An improved version was published in the March 1991 issue of Electronic Publishing: Origination, Dissemination, and Design.