Right order of (possibly unnumbered) introduction, ordinary, conclusion and appendix chapters

Question

Following the discussion started here and also related to this question, I'd like to know different opinions about what could be long document structures (books, PhD. theses, etc.), with focus on:

1. relative locations in the document of:
   • introduction chapter,
   • ordinary chapters,
   • conclusion chapter,
   • appendix chapters,
2. LaTeX strategies in case of unnumbered introduction and conclusion.

Below, I expose what sounds reasonable to my eyes and I hope other opinions will confirm or reverse mine.

IMO, the order should be:

〈introduction〉
〈ordinary chapters〉
〈conclusion〉
〈appendix chapters〉

and, particularly, 〈conclusion〉 should come before 〈appendix chapters〉 which may be very long.

Then arises the question of (un)numbering these stuffs. IMO, it is legitimate to want the introduction numbered or unnumbered but then, by symmetry, so should be the conclusion.

It is possible to achieve unnumbered introduction and conclusion by putting the former in the front matter and the latter in the back matter:

\frontmatter
...
〈introduction〉
\mainmatter
〈ordinary chapters〉
\backmatter
〈conclusion〉
\appendix
〈appendix chapters〉
...

Two problems with this:

1. the introduction, conclusion (and appendix) chapters will be unnumbered but not their subsequent (sub(sub))sections,
2. the appendix chapter will be unnumbered, which is not desirable in general (and, in this case, \appendix is completely useless).

I looked for a better way to achieve this but I wonder if there are even better strategies.

EDIT: It must be noticed that I could here make use of personal macros but I try to avoid them and keep (possibly patched) standard macros in order to keep the "structure" features of editors (RefTeX in Emacs, "Structure View" in TeXstudio, etc.)

Answer 1

I suspect you won't really like this answer in all its details, but, judging by your linked to question, I'd like to suggest that you are missing out on LaTeX' ability to abstract from generic commands, which is especially true when you define your own class and/or system of commands. If you don't like what \chapter, \chapter*, \section, and \section* do by default, why do you want to use the exact same command names in your own document?

I'd suggest instead: make meaningful commands that semantically indicate their function. Why not have a command like \introduction and \conclusion if their behaviour is supposed to be visibly different from a generic chapter? Since they should be unnumbered and yet appear in the ToC and in the header, let's just create commands that do that, rather than bending \chapter(*) to do all its normal things and also do the new things? The following is a very simple-minded implementation of this idea. It could be fine-tuned in several respects, I'm sure, but as I don't know the overall aesthetic look you are aiming for, I stick as much to the defaults as possible (aesthetically and package-wise).

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage[titletoc, page, header]{appendix}
\usepackage{hyperref}
% \usepackage{bookmark} % <-- offers a lot more flexiblity

% NOTE: the formatting will need to be changed for the \mark* stuff;
% perhaps with fancyhdr
\newcommand{\introduction}[1]{%
  \chapter{#1}%
  \markboth{#1}{#1}}

\newcommand{\Chapter}[1]{%
  \chapter*{#1}%
  \markboth{#1}{#1}%
  \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{#1}}

\newcommand{\Section}[1]{%
  \section*{#1}%
  \markright{#1}%
  \addcontentsline{toc}{section}{#1}}

\newcommand{\conclusion}[1]{%
  \chapter*{#1}%
  \markboth{#1}{#1}%
  \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{#1}}


\begin{document}

\frontmatter

\tableofcontents

\introduction{Introductory Information}
\lipsum[1-10]

\Section{Introductory section}
\lipsum[1-10]

\mainmatter

\chapter{Numbered chapter}
\lipsum[1-10]
\section{Numbered section}
\lipsum[1-10]

\chapter{Numbered chapter (bis)}
\lipsum[1-10]
\section{Numbered section (bis)}
\lipsum[1-10]

\chapter*{Unnumbered chapter}
% this will not appear in ToC or the header, by default
\lipsum[1-10]
\section{Numbered section in unnumbered chapter}% <-- obviously this makes no sense; it thus appears in the 'wrong' place in the ToC
\lipsum[1-10]


\Chapter{Unnumbered chapter (bis)}
% this is (questionably) defined to appear in ToC and header...
\lipsum[1-10]
\section{Numbered section in unnumbered chapter (bad idea)}% <-- obviously this makes no sense; it thus appears in the 'wrong' place in the ToC
\lipsum[1-10]


%\backmatter % <--- this adds little benefit in my opinion

\conclusion{Concluding Remarks}
\lipsum[1-10]
\Section{Concluding section}
\lipsum[1-10]

\begin{appendices}

\chapter{Further Details}
\leftmark{Appendices}
\lipsum[1-10]
\section{Appendix section (no star)}

\lipsum[1-10]

\chapter{Yet Further Details}
\lipsum[1-10]
\Section{Unnumbered appendix section}
\lipsum[1-10]

\end{appendices}

\end{document}

Of course, if you need the long and short versions for \introduction, etc., it gets more tricky (although not very if we can use xparse). But first things first.