Re: FOOTNOTE element

Dave Raggett (dsr@hplb.hpl.hp.com)
Thu, 9 Mar 1995 15:46:57 +0500


> I'd like to put in a bid to have the FN element restored. Here's why.

> 1) The content model of the <P> element makes it impossible to embed a
> footnote inside of a paragraph, so that something like this:

This is a misunderstanding. The idea is that you use a hypertext link
from the paragraph to the footnote. The link would be represented with
the <A> element in the normal way. The draft proposal explains how, see:

http://www.hpl.hp.co.uk/people/dsr/html3/notes.html

This is under "Admonishments and Footnotes" in the table of contents.

http://www.hpl.hp.co.uk/people/dsr/html3/Contents.html

> 2) I don't think that the content model of NOTE is restrictive enough for a
> footnote element. Footnotes should be short, so things like tables and
> embedded notes and lists don't belong there. It would not be appropriate
> to restrict the content model of NOTE however, so a different element is
> needed for that purpose.

The relaxed content model for NOTE doesn't seem sufficient justification
to me for introducing another new tag. HTML in general provides a lax
content model making it easy to convert other formats into HTML.

-- Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> tel: +44 117 922 8046 fax: +44 117 922 8924
Hewlett Packard Laboratories, Filton Road, Bristol BS12 6QZ, United Kingdom