Re: Multiple references to a footnote in texi sources

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@posteo.net>
> Cc: stefankangas@gmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2022 08:02:03 +0000
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> >> But such footnotes look strange when referenced sequentially - texinfo
> >> displays two identical footnotes one after another.
> >
> > In my book, this means a footnote is a wrong means to handle these
> > cases.  If you are talking about a reference to book or a URL, there
> > are other ways of doing that which don't use @footnote.  I'm guessing
> > people think they should use @footnote because the have something like
> > footnote-mode in mind.  But that's superficial similarity, based on
> > the presence of the same word and on nothing else.
> 
> Note that LaTeX does support multiple footnote references and such
> footnote referencing style is a common practice in some research journals.

LaTeX is a general-purpose system for writing books and articles.  By
contrast, Texinfo is a more limited system aimed at writing software
documentation.  My comments should be read in the context of Texinfo
and its purpose.

> I do not agree that "multiple references" is a universally wrong idea.

Feel free to disregard my opinions in this matter, but they are based
on years of experience of writing Texinfo documentation.  I'll let
everyone who reads this make up their minds about the issue, but I
made mine long time ago.