Text Formatting ⇒ Continue last Footnote

[Laurentius]

Is there a way to continue the last footnote? I mean:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}

% can we define a command
\def\a{}
% such that

a\footnote{b}\a{c}

% produces the same result as

a\footnote{bc}

% ?

\end{document}

[cgnieder]

I don't think so. Or rather: if it is it surely isn't easy... (My knowlegde of LaTeX's output routine and the creation of footnotes is fairly limited (although I wrote a footnote related package.)

Is this related to your Format for short Footnotes thread?

Regards

[Laurentius]

Yes, it is for this rule.

A short note may be set complete in the break-line of another note provided it is set ranged right, with more than 3 ems between the notes.

I don't know how to do this without displacing the second footnote in the text, which is unpractical. Maybe using an auxiliary file and a \toks for every footnote will work. I imagine redefining \footnote such that for long notes, it asks itself: is the next note of this page (or the page where this note ends), and is there space in the last line for the next note + 3em? If so, print it there.