[texhax] TeX "sidenote" challenge

[Michael Barr]

Let me hasten to say that this is not something I would actually be 
interested in using since I use almost no footnotes.  But I was just 
reading a book that used sidenotes instead.  The format was roughly this:

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                        | "side- | 
     Main text area     |  note" | 
                        |  area  | 
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                        ---------  

on recto pages.  On verso the sidenotes appeared on the left.  It was 
quite attractive, if you have to use notes (I hate endnotes unless they 
are used only for citations).  The book was published by Princeton.  If 
you want to look at it, it is called "From Hand to Mouth" by Michael 
Corballis.  Naturally, I started to think how would you implement such a 
style in TeX?  I don't see any way offhand.  TeX's footnote mechanism 
shortens the page to make room for footnotes, but I see no mechanism for 
automatically narrowing the columns.  An output routine can cut pages 
short, but not reformat, as I understand it.

Michael Barr