Discovery ... & counter problem

[Eric Van Tassel 101233.342@xxxxxxxx]

Probably a stupid answer to Harry Binswanger's counter problem, but I'll
offer it anyway.

When I work on an annotated article I (naturally) use FN1 (with FN2 for
comments to myself), and so long as I keep adding/subtracting notes the
note numbering stays internally consistent when I print out. (I do have a
problem of my own, which I'll append at the end of this note.)

But for various reasons (including e-mailing a draft of an
article-in-progress to a friend) I want to be able to convert those note
numbers, both the text cue and the note itself, to hard numbers. I have a
simple macro that (a) extracts the notes to the end of the file, numbering
both the footnote and the position it left behind with counters ≪C0≫ and
≪C1≫); (b) converts ≪C0≫ and ≪C1≫ to sequential hard numbers; (c)
changes the numbers in the ≪C0≫ sequence to superscript, if I'm producing
a hardcopy printout. I do this on a duplicate of the file-in-progress, and
the ≪FN1...≫ strings remain intact and un-hard-numbered in the original
file.

Can Harry do something similar with his Philosophy notes?

Now, my problem is this. It's wonderful to have ≪FN1≫ renumbering all the
notes as soon as you add/delete one; but what's the most efficient way for
me to insert a cross-reference that will stay intact when the notes are
renumbered? At early-draft stage I realize I'm going to refer to the same
extensive argument three times: the 2nd and 3rd times, I want to be able to
say "(see n.00 above)". But until I decide the article is ready for
publication, I don't know what number 00 is.

What I think I'm looking for is a way in which I can insert a tag at the
first instance, the "target" of potential cross-references -- let's say by
putting in *** when I know that I'm going to cross-refer to that note --
and then when I want to make the cross-reference, insert a command that
will look for ***, determine the number (FOR THE TIME BEING) of the
"target" note that contains the original ***, and then insert that pro-tem
note number in the cross-reference. Anybody got any ideas?

Thanks
Eric Van Tassel


(The only snag I've encounte