<P> The formatting independence problem refers to whether or not the final index can be formatted independently of the entire document. Indexing is typically the last step of document preparation, and is attempted only when the entire document is finalized. It is desirable to be able to generate the index without reformatting the entire document. To be able to format the index separately, the global context must be known, which is made possible by the extensible style facility in our design. One can redefine <code>preamble</code> and <code>postamble</code> to invoke a style consistent with the original document.
<P> The other information needed to perform effective separate formatting is the starting page number for the index. Some styles require that the index start on an even or odd page number. In either case, there must be provisions for including the correct starting page number in the pre-formatted version of index.
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