[texhax] Help with footnotes

[Michael Barr]

Eventally, I solved both problems.  I include the ad hoc solutions in case 
they might help other people.  As for the 2bis (it turned out there was a 
1bis and 1ter as well) this does it:

\newcounter{gnote}
\def\@gnote#1{\addtocounter{gnote}1%
{\def\thefootnote{\arabic{gnote}}\footnote{#1}}}
\def\@@gnote[#1]#2{\def\thefootnote{#1}\footnote{#2}}
\def\gnote{\@ifnextchar[{\@@gnote}{\@gnote}}

and then \gnote{text} will do the automatic numbering, while 
\gnote[2bis]{text} will give 2bis as the footnote mark (I actually changed 
this to 2$'$).  For a second footnote series, I used:

\newcounter{transnote}
\def\transnote#1{\addtocounter{transnote}1%
{\def\thefootnote{\alph{transnote}}\footnote{Translator's
note: #1}}}

and it all seems to work.

Just two more comments: I searched for "footnote" on ctan and did not find 
the manyfoot mentioned below.  And I had to modify the \alph command:

\def\@alph#1{%
   \ifcase#1\or a\or b\or c\or d\or e\or f\or g\or h\or i\or j\or
    k\or l\or m\or n\or o\or p\or q\or r\or s\or t\or u\or v\or w\or x\or
     y\or z \or aa \or bb \or cc \or dd \or ee \or ff  \or gg  \or hh
  \or ii \or jj \or kk \or ll \or mm \or nn \or oo \or pp \or qq \or rr \or 
ss \or tt \or uu \or vv \or ww \or xx \or yy \or zz
\else\@ctrerr\fi}

because I had more than 26 (but fewer than 52) translator's notes.


On Fri, 3 Sep 2010, Uwe Lueck wrote:

> Michael Barr , 02.09.2010 17:48:28
> An: texhax at tug.org
> Betreff: [texhax] Help with footnotes
>
>> Can someone suggest a good macro package for flexible footnotes?  I have
>> translated a long article that has many chapters and many footnotes.  I
>> need a second set of footnotes for translators notes, which I will number
>> alphabetically.  I have done that, using something of a kludge, but two
>> problems remain.  First the book style starts the footnote numbering over
>> for each chapter.  The original didn't and I wish to preserve his
>> numbering.  Secondly, he has one footnote numbered 2bis; it appears, of
>> course between 2 and 3.  Does any package give that much flexibility?  If
>> not, I may have to use plain's footnotes.
>
> ctan.org/pkg/manyfoot -- HTH -- Uwe.
>