[sword-devel] Re: [osis-editors] OSIS 2.0.1 modules updated

[Chris Little]

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, Patrick Durusau wrote:
> >>>
> >>I recall some recent discussion of footnote start anchors but don't 
> >>have 
> >>it at my finger tips. Can you say a few words about that?
> > 
> > 
> > I thought that I already did that. I look at footnotes as a note that 
> > pertains to either a range of text or a point in the text. This note 
> > may be rendered at the bottom of the page, in a pop-up window, or 
> > whatever, but it contains information about the main text that may be 
> > helpful but that is not part of the main text. Since the note may 
> > pertain to a range of text, I have found it useful to mark the 
> > beginning of the text with a "begin reference" marker (<RB> in GBF), 
> > then mark the end of the text with an element containing the note 
> > itself. This way, it is easy to render the text to which the footnote 
> > pertains as a hyperlink. Also, if you wanted to treat footnotes like 
> > the JPS Tanach did in print (with superscripted markers at both 
> > places), you can. OSIS has no equivalent marker, so I put in a generic 
> > milestone. In rendering footnotes, if there is no beginning footnoted 
> > text marker, I just render it as a point, for example as a hyperlinked 
> > asterisk pointing to the note. In print rendering, I usually ignore 
> > the first marker, but could do something with it.
> > 
> > This isn't a major problem, just a feature that I miss that would be 
> > easy to supply. I can live with my current work-around in the current 
> > OSIS version just fine.
> > 
> > 
> Hmmm, might I suggest (again off the top of my head) the use of a 
> <reference> element that has its osisRef attribute pointing to the 
> <note> with its content? Seems to me if you put a type on <reference> 
> that said, type="note" that would do the trick. (We would have to add 
> note to the list of osisRefernce types.)
> 
> For the case you suggest, I think this would capture the behavior you want.

Taking some sample text like this, where *f* marks (possibly 
superscripted) footnote markers, as in the Tanakh from JPS:

The quick *f*brown*f*<note>possibly beige</note> fox jumps over the lazy 
dog.

I think the suggestion of using <reference> works iff its content is the 
footnote letter (f in this case) as in:

The quick
<reference>f</reference>brown<reference>f</reference><note>possibly
beige</note> fox jumps over the lazy dog.

I think a better solution might be to use the <a> element, possibly with 
the addition of an osisRef attribute, since its semantics pretty closely 
match the usage described.

--Chris