Front matter and back matter, such as the “Table of Contents,” “Index,” “Figures,” “Credits,” and “Appendix” are not considered formally part of this standard, so that we retain the flexibility needed to update these sections even at the last minute without fear of needing a formal vote to change those parts of the document. These items are quite short and very useful, however, and it is not recommended that they be removed even in an abridged version of this document.
Within the concept sections, subsections whose names begin with the words “Note” or “Notes” or “Example” or “Examples” are provided for illustration purposes only, and are not considered part of the standard.
An attempt has been made to place these sections last in their parent section, so that they could be removed without disturbing the contiguous numbering of the surrounding sections in order to produce a document of smaller size.
Likewise, the “Examples” and “Notes” sections in a dictionary entry are not considered part of the standard and could be removed if necessary.
Nevertheless, the examples provide important clarifications and consistency checks for the rest of the material, and such abridging is not recommended unless absolutely unavoidable.