[Tex/LaTex] Construction of a Notation Page in Memoir Document Class:

Question

I want to create a reference page which defines the notation which is used throughout a book I am writing. I would preferably like this page to go inside of the front cover, or inside of the back cover. For example, if the reader didn't recall the definition of some term, I would like the reader to be able to flip to the back of the book and see something like this:

$C[a,b]$: The space of continuous functions defined on $[a,b]$.

$C^{1}[a,b]$: The space of differentiable functions with continuous derivatives defined on $[a,b]$.

. . . and so on. Is there any easy and elegant way to do this?

Answer 1

As Brent.Longborough mentioned in his comment, one option would be to use the nomencl package. Another option (allowing you to have not only the symbols and their descriptions, but also the page(s) in which they occur (typically one would use the page in which the concept is defined)) would be to use the glossaries package; a little example:

\documentclass[a4paper]{memoir}
\usepackage[style=super]{glossaries}
\makeglossaries

\renewcommand\glossaryname{List of Symbols}

\newglossaryentry{Cab}{name={$C[a,b]$},
sort=C,
description={The space of continuous functions defined on $[a,b]$}
}

\newglossaryentry{C1ab}{name={$C^{1}[a,b]$},
sort=C,
description={The space of differentiable functions with continuous derivatives defined on $[a,b]$},
}

\begin{document}

Next, we introduce The space \gls{Cab} of continuous functions defined on $[a,b]$ and its subspace \gls{C1ab} of differentiable functions with continuous derivatives defined on $[a,b]$.

\printglossaries

\end{document}

an image of the first page of the resulting document:

and an image of the resulting "List of Terms":

The glossaries package offers you many customization possibilities; please refer to the package documentation.