RE: Footnotes in HTML3: questions/proposals

Keith Rogers (kerog@sp.isl.secom.co.jp)
Tue, 27 Jun 1995 17:15:52 +0900

At 1:45 AM 6/27/95 -0500, Geoff Baysinger wrote:
>Sounds like another subject where it will be up to the browser to
>interpret the HTML how it wants ...

I realize that this is up to browser-designers.
I was trying to get a feel for the intent with which the html was
proposed. :-) What sort of uses are people envisioning for this?
Will there be footnote symbols that can be specified by the user,
or will that also be browser-dependent?

Also, what about the concept of having a definition at top or bottom
for a word which should be repeatedly footnoted?

How about having a reference to a subject specific glossary at a
separate URL? For instance, if I'm writing an article on a subject
in an obscure branch of chemistry, I might want to link my document
into a standard glossary of terms used in that branch. Then terms
appearing in the glossary would automatically be footnoted in the
document, making the information more accessible and creating a
basis for a shared, consistent terminology.

Geoff also wrote in reply to this message:

>I didn't post the "browser/server" reply since there's enough of that
>running around, but you should put up the idea of cross-referrenced
>footnotes since it does seem rather unique and useful ... it could be
>used for maintaing a "table of contents" also, so you could just update
>your table of contents HTML file with the links in it, and the links in
>your footnotes would be automatically updated ... MUCH simpler than
>updating duplicate links across dozens or hundreds of documents (my most
>dreaded activity).
-------
Keith Rogers kerog@sp.isl.secom.co.jp
SECOM Intelligent Sytems Laboratory, Speech Processing Group

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