Footnotes in ReST

Sun Oct 4 06:14:16 EDT 2015

Peter Otten wrote:
> Changing numbers to make room for a new footnote is not much harder (but
> less convenient as you have to repeat it for every new footnote):
>>>>> def replace(match, n=2):
> ... index = int(match.group(1))
> ... if index >= n:
> ... index += 1
> ... return "[{}]".format(index)
> ...
>>>> print(re.compile(r"\[(\d+)\]").sub(replace, text))
> blah blah blah [1]_ and blah blah blah [3]_.
> blah blah [4]_ blah ... blah blah
> blah blah [1000]_.
>> .. [1] fe
> .. [3] fi
> .. [4] fo
> ...
> .. [1000] fum

Those who remember the old basic dialects might [1]_ like
$ cat insert_footnote_basic.py
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import re
import sys
def step(start, delta):
 n = start
 while True:
 yield n
 n += delta
def insert_footnote(text):
 lookup = {}
 steps = step(10, 10)
 def replace(match):
 index = int(match.group(1))
 try:
 new_index = lookup[index]
 except KeyError:
 new_index = lookup[index] = next(steps)
 return "[{}]".format(new_index)
 return re.compile(r"\[(\d+)\]").sub(replace, text)
if __name__ == "__main__":
 sys.stdout.write(
 insert_footnote(sys.stdin.read())
 )
$ cat sample.rst
blah blah blah [10]_ and blah blah blah [20]_.
[21] this is new
blah blah [30]_ blah ... blah blah
blah blah [9990]_.
.. [10] fe
.. [20] fi
.. [21] yes it is
.. [30] fo
 ...
.. [9990] fum
$ ./insert_footnote_basic.py < sample.rst
blah blah blah [10]_ and blah blah blah [20]_.
[30] this is new
blah blah [40]_ blah ... blah blah
blah blah [50]_.
.. [10] fe
.. [20] fi
.. [30] yes it is
.. [40] fo
 ...
.. [50] fum
$
.. [1] or run away screaming ;)