Re: footnotes

One might use footnotes for many things,
and there are many possible implementations.
The basic function of a footnote is to
designate some text as subsidiary.

I don't understand why html does not
offer explicit footnote and endnote tags,
both for the structure this offers to html
documents and to facilitate translation
between document formats.
(The latter reason alone wd be reason
enough, but there are clear structural
reasons---reflected in the existence of
footnotes---as well. There were discussions
recognizing this and proposing to include
footnote tags in html 3.0.)

Of course one can use make shift ploys:
e.g., superscript a hyperlinked number.
But i. this does not acknowledge the
special structure of footnotes, and
ii. this does not permit algorithmic translation
*from* html to other formats.

--Alan G. Isaac

Received on Tuesday, 9 June 1998 02:07:56 UTC