link soup

[Mark Smith]

@ 17:12 on 22.8.05, Michel Fortin wrote:


>I would like it if there was a way to change footnotes into sidenotes 

>(without javascript) for web sites that prefer them.


I assume that you are thinking about re-purposing footnote input rather
than the suitability of sidenotes for the proposed syntax per se ?

I was thinking about sidenotes and came to the provisional personal
conclusion that they are the least good fit (of the various
foot/end/side note types) with "endnote syntax". They won't normally
need any two-way "linking" (thanks to their advantageous positioning)
and there are already some simple-enough pure-css solutions.

Going out on a limb (I'm not a web-dev and don't even spend that much
time playing one in my spare time), I'd imagine that a dedicated syntax
for a "sidenote span element" would be sufficient in Markdown for
sidenotes ?

Maybe something like:

    ^|sidenoteID|
    
    ^|ID|:  This is the sidenote text paragraph. 

    
which produces an in-text marker (the ID) and an associated "sidenote
class paragraph" that one positions/styles with css ? Its not a link as
such, so it doesn't use brackets, but it has some common properties with
footnotes, so it uses the ^. No ? (I may well be thinking along narrow
lines)

mark.