MakeIndex and \alph

Question

Whilst reading the manual for MakeIndex I stumbled upon:

MakeIndex assumes that all page numbers are either arabic or lower-case roman numerals; it assumes that pages numbered with roman numerals precede those numbered with arabic numerals.

and wondered... how can I lift this restriction? Specifically: how can I tell MakeIndex to not verify the page numbering format?

For instance, if I have an index entry on an \alph page.

I'm open to suggestions regarding alternative indexing preprocessors, but they should work with hyperref (ruling out xindy if memory serves).

Answer 1

The following test.tex document compiles perfectly and all the page references have their hyperlink:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{imakeidx}
\usepackage{hyperref}

\makeindex[program=texindy]

\begin{document}
\frontmatter
abc\index{abc}

\mainmatter
xyz\index{xyz}

abc\index{abc}

\newpage
abc\index{abc}

\cleardoublepage
\pagenumbering{alph}

\appendix
abc\index{abc}

\newpage
abc\index{abc}

\printindex

\end{document}

Of course imakeidx is not necessary, I used it just for doing everything in one step, running

pdflatex --shell-escape test

Pages with alphabetic numbering are sorted after arabic numbered ones, which come after roman numbered ones, but I guess it's possible to customize Xindy's behavior.

On the other hand, the same result is obtained with MakeIndex.