Re: footnotes

Actually this does not work at all for footnotes.
But the real point is: look at how many work
arounds people have offered on this list for
footnotes. They are needed for their semantic
content and HTML does not offer them.

Even good workarounds are beside this point.
HTML shd accommodate the semantic content
of the footnote (i.e., subsidiary text).

In addition, unless a workaround were good enough
to become a de facto standard, translation between
formats continues to be hindered by the lack of an
html footnote tag.

The only good argument I have seen against such
a tag is that the HTML 3 proposals did not degrade
gracefully. How long will this justification prevent
the repair of a major oversight?

--Alan G. Isaac



Frank Boumphrey wrote:

> >>I'm for a footnote element, but how to create one that's usable on the
> current browsers?
>
> Here's a side note I use with my shakespear.css. It works very well on both
> Navigator and IE4.
>
> .footnote{
>   width:12pc;
>   font-size:10pt;
>   color:#600000;
>   position:absolute;
>   left:28pc;
>   background-color:#C0C0C0;
>   padding:6pt;
>   border-style:none;
>   border-width:1px;
>   }
>
> <DIV CLASS="SPEAKER">THESEUS<DIV CLASS="footnote">Thesus, Duke of Athens, is
> about to marry Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. He has just conquered the
> Amazons in battle.</DIV>
> </DIV >
>
> Frank
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Rothenberg <wlkngowl@unix.asb.com>
> To: Frank Boumphrey <bckman@ix.netcom.com>
> Cc: www-html@w3.org <www-html@w3.org>
> Date: Saturday, June 13, 1998 6:13 AM
> Subject: Re: footnotes
>
> On 9 Jun 98, Frank Boumphrey wrote:
>
> > Don't forget side notes which are the easiest of all to find and read.
>
> Aren't footnotes, endnotes and sidenotes (as well as "pop-up notes" or even
> somethin
> using frames) semantically the same thing? So placement (bottom of page, end
> of
> document, side of document or as a pop-up window) is a style (CSS/XSL) issue
> separate from the actual notation element.
>
> I'm for a footnote element, but how to create one that's usable on the
> current browsers?
> Various ideas come to mind, but they're essentially hacks. A useful notation
> element
> would allow for automatic numbering (with separate numbering schemes, since
> one
> may want to differentiate between an author's notes and a translator's or
> editor's
> notes).  One should also be able to reference other notes from within a
> note.
>
> For browser/UA convenience, the notation should be in the text where it
> occurs... of
> course that's less usable on current browsers. (It would be less of a
> problem if
> something is agreed upon now and implemented in the major browsers real
> soon, of
> course.)
>
> Rob
>
> PS - Why'd I/we overlook this as a paper idea for the Future of HTML
> Conference?

Received on Sunday, 14 June 1998 11:29:33 UTC