- Change footnote syntax from ``.. [1]`` to ``_[1]``? Has this been discussed before?
Oh, probably, but do it anyway. :)
- Differentiate author-date "citations" (``[GVR2002]``) from numbered footnotes? Create a new set of DTD elements: "citation" and "citation_reference"?
Sounds good, especially the difference in rendering.
- Render footnote references as superscripts without "[]"? (But only if we differentiate numerical footnotes from textual citations.)
This is where you start wanting to use XHTML/CSS. Or, of course, people can just use the XML output and write their own transforms.
- Make footnotes two-way, GNU-style? What if there are multiple references to a single footnote?
Ha! I told you that'd happen! :)
- Add a "sidebar" element to the DTD? Like a generic admonition or floating mini-section. Useful for TOC, system messages section, abstract, etc.
Lovely.
- Add character processing? For example:
- "--" -> em-dash (or "--" -> en-dash, and "---" -> em-dash)
Yes! Yes! My personal preference is -- for em-dashes, but I bet I'm mis-using them. :)
- convert quotes to curly quote entities
I hate it when that happens.
- various forms of ":-)" to smily icons
That, too.
How to represent entities in the text though? Unicode?
ë and friends? Regards, Garth.