From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: tsd@tsdye.com (Thomas S. Dye) Subject: Adventures with org-footnote-auto-adjust Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2013 08:09:34 -1000 Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:33809) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1U9JY5-0004D1-PV for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sat, 23 Feb 2013 13:10:20 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1U9JXy-00052c-Q0 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sat, 23 Feb 2013 13:10:13 -0500 Received: from oproxy11-pub.bluehost.com ([173.254.64.10]:39283) by eggs.gnu.org with smtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1U9JXy-0004vn-H9 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sat, 23 Feb 2013 13:10:06 -0500 Received: from [98.155.255.145] (port=61717 helo=poto.myhome.westell.com) by box472.bluehost.com with esmtpsa (TLSv1:CAMELLIA128-SHA:128) (Exim 4.80) (envelope-from ) id 1U9JXY-00025h-2Z for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sat, 23 Feb 2013 11:09:40 -0700 List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Org-mode Aloha all, I keep footnotes in their own section and appreciate having them out of the way, where I don't have to think about them. Recently, I set #+STARTUP: fnadjust because I thought it would be nice to have the footnotes sorted and renumbered. This was a mistake in my case that lost data. I think I know how it happened, though I wasn't really paying attention to the footnotes as I worked. In the document I'm editing, I have sentences like this: If you want a list to start with a different value (e.g., 20),[fn:17] start the text of the item with ~[@20]~. As a matter of style, I prefer the footnote (which contains qualifying text, rather than a reference) be at the end of the sentence, and that it immediately follow the period. So, I cut and paste to get this: If you want a list to start with a different value (e.g., 20), start the text of the item with ~[@20]~.[fn:17] Now, the next time I insert a footnote, with C-c C-x f, I get something like this: If you want a list to start with a different value (e.g., 20),[fn:17] start the text of the item with ~[@20]~.[fn:17] The text of the original footnote, [fn:17], is lost, though the mark remains in the text. If the new [fn:17] is some distance away, then the problem of duplicate numbers isn't readily apparent in the midst of other work. Of course, I subsequently discovered that `~.[fn:17]' wasn't working and put the space back in. Now, the footnote refers to the wrong text. I've learned that there are certain conditions (I don't know how many) where the space after a sentence won't accept a footnote insertion. The example sentence is one of these. Apparently, it is the `~.' combination that triggers the condition. Org is good enough to prohibit inserting a new footnote into one of these "black holes" (which is how I discovered them), but it doesn't mind if I cut and paste a footnote into one. I'm not certain how much mischief this might have caused. I discovered the problem when the text of *both* footnotes in a section of the document were incorrect. In my case, org-footnote-auto-adjust doesn't perform any crucial function--it just makes the Org mode buffer seem more orderly. Given that there are "black holes" in the buffer, whose presence have the ability to confuse org-footnote-auto-adjust so that data are lost, should org-footnote-auto-adjust be deprecated? All the best, Tom -- Thomas S. Dye http://www.tsdye.com