Padraig > The following occur in _Hart's rules for compositors_ 39th ed. (1983) 142: > > (b) One single-line note on a page should be centred; > two or more single-line notes on a page should be > ranged on the left, the whole being centred on the > longest. > > (c) A short note may be set complete in the break-line > of another note provided it is set full right, preferably > with more than three ems between the notes. > > (d) Short notes may be run on in the same line with > preferably at least 3 ems between them, the line being > centred. Where there are several short footnotes, > they should be ranged in columns with a minimum > of a 3-em space between the longest lines in the columns. > > __________________________________________________________ > > How much of this could be automated for LaTeX? > Before looking at this form of the question, first answer the following: How much of this could be automated? ie express it as an algorithm or at least as a set of constraints that must be satisfied. My feeling is that this first stage is the tough bit (but not impossible); without it deciding whether it is reasonable to implement such a set of rules in TeX is impossible. chris