Footnotes/Endnotes & Blogs

It has always been a source of irritation (and not a little frustration) to me that HTML or XHTML does not have a specification for an endnote or footnote—either its reference mark or its textual expression. This is a document element that scholars use all the time. Apparently, the W3C authors did not agree. As a result, endnote/footnotes are a challenge on the web. (If it is not a document element, what is it, then?) Like any good historian, I have my suspicions about the reasons for this lucana, but that is neither here nor there.

Sharon, a fellow Cliopat and proprietor of Early Modern Notes, wished for a blog footnote plug-in the other day. While I can’t manage a plug-in, I wrote a CSS technique specifically for blogs this afternoon. Since the explanation is a bit long, I've housed it at my blog: HistoryTalk. I’d love to hear from anyone who tries it out, especially folks on using a Wintel platform. (ppetrik AT gmu DOT edu) To any high-level programmers out there: TypePad and WordPress plug-ins would be nice; to any Dashboard widget writers: a widget would be good, too. I know that there are some tech-heads that lurk at Crooked Timber and other tech blogs who surface when technical issues arise. Gang, here’s a chance to do the world of scholarship a favor.