[Python-markdown-discuss] Footnote ext and random links

[Waylan L. <wa...@gm...>]

Yuri,

I got the footnote extension working again last night and was looking
at the output. There are a few little oddities I'll fix, but the real
problem (IMO) is the random strings in the generated links from marker
to note and back. As they are randomly generated, they are never the
same. This means that if a user was to link to a specific footnote
(i.e.: ``http://example.com/page.html#fn1-xxxxxxxxx``), the link
wouldn't work for future visits. Well, the correct page would load,
but the browser wouldn't jump to the proper footnote - which could be
a useful feature. I also noted that other implementations do not do
this. They simply use the key (i.e. ``fn1``) which should be unique
anyway. On top of all that, as the randomly generated links are
different each time, it is imposable to test with our current testing
framework (tests exist, but they're turned off) - which is why no one
noticed we broke footnotes when we implemented Treap.

So, my question is: what purpose do the random strings serve? Why
aren't we just using the key for each footnote?

-- 
----
Waylan Limberg
wa...@gm...