Interesting subject, that I've been playing with recently as well.
For future reference: these, which are on the page @old_coyote_pedaller linked to, I find very useful:
They inspired me to build a bike with a Stronglight triple, Maillard 6-sp freewheel, Shimano SIS rear mech, SunTour front mech and ("old") Campagnolo Chorus 9-sp brifters. Works like a charm.
And if ya have a 5 speed rear then the Suntour 6 speed screw on cassette designed to fit 5 speed 126mm spacing is ideal as has same 5.0mm spacing a shimano 7 speed indexed stuff so can allow index shifting on very old bikes and works very nicely
Am I right in thinking an XTR M972 (carbon cage) 9 speed rear mech will happily do its job on an earlier XTR 8 speed freehub/cassette, as long as it’s controled by an 8 speed shifter?