@daleif I'm playing with the multiple option, and I see I'll likely have trouble with memoir, because memoir includes \textsuperscript in \multfootsep. I even agree hard-coding it as footmiscdoes is questionable, but the difference in value in this "shared variable" makes for some trouble. This is also likely trouble for latex-lab-footmisc (as hinted by Ulrike somewhere above).

@daleif KOMA has an interesting approach for this, it defines \newcommand*{\multiplefootnoteseparator}{\begingroup\let\thefootnotemark\multfootsep\@makefnmark\endgroup} and uses that instead in \FN@mf@check, keeping \multfootsep as a plain comma.

Where do I find the file where babel is hiding the hyphenation patterns for a specific language?

@Gaussler I don't think that is on babel, that is compiled into the format. Though no idea where the data is. Babel might just activate them.

@Gaussler though on texlive have a look at texmf-dist/tex/generic/hyph-utf8/ (I just searched for danish, and ./tlpkg/tlpobj/hyphen-danish.tlpobj seemed like an interesting target and it gave the location cited)

@daleif Inside the tex subfolder of that, there is a file called hyph-da.tex, but it just contains a lot of gibberish

@UlrikeFischer @daleif I went for a Gordian knot approach: github.com/gusbrs/postnotes/commit/… . Not a bat idea, I think. Less "mid-term white hair" for me. ;-)

@gusbrs what happens if someone mixes footnotes and postnotes and e.g. uses \footnote{blub}\postnote{bla}?

@Gaussler It's not gibberish, it's patterns :)

@JosephWright Okay, I didn’t know this pattern system at all, I thought TeX used a dictionary for hyphenation. Anyway, what annoys me is that the Danish babel allows Dynamics to be hyphenated as Dynami-cs. I know that I can prevent that manually using \babelhyphenation[danish], but other similar cases will arise, so it could be nice to have it fixed once and for all

@Gaussler Hyphenation patterns work for the 'common cases' - lists of exceptions will always be needed

Perhaps in Polish, but not in Danish 😉

@Gaussler Hyphenation isn't about syllables

@JosephWright Well, then substitute what it is about into the sentence I just wrote 😉

@UlrikeFischer It should work fine. (Of course, if that makes sense in the document is another question). The only thing which connects both calls is the value of \lastkern.

@UlrikeFischer The only (minor) inconvenience is that, if someone changes the value of \multfootsep they must (should?) also make a corresponding change to multisep. But really, is there anything other than a comma which could go there?

@Gaussler really not babel but they should be around /usr/local/texlive/2024/texmf-dist/tex/generic/hyph-utf8/patterns/

@Gaussler it depends what your objection is, but \righthyphenmin=3 as used by English would stop that break point being allowed.

Having fun with \tracingall

@JosephWright you should add that to all beamer presentations

@JosephWright tracing \relax ?

@DavidCarlisle :)

@DavidCarlisle :)

@DavidCarlisle Indeed - message to team list coming up - I sort-of understand what is going on, but we likely need to read the source code of TeX to be certain

(Perhaps after I get home - depends on how long it takes to write vs train arrival)

@JosephWright Oh, some weird things?

@DavidCarlisle what kind of penance would I have to do in order to ask you a question, please?

@cfr ask anyway, then I'll tell you

@mickep \halign preambles and {\ifnum0=`}\fi groups, so yes weird things:-)

@DavidCarlisle is there any reason not to use changepage with longtable?

@DavidCarlisle Oh, too complicated for me to understand. I \relax :P

@cfr does it work? (I'll look at your post in a bit) if the table starts or ends mid page and you just want to shift the table part that's quite tricky you's have to vsplit box255 and re-assemble. If the pages only have the table it's possible but I'm surprised changepage works as it's just a list really, but let me see...

@cfr I added a picture, yes OK you are shifting whole pages (as shown by your full width Kant text) not just the table which is more do-able. Seems to work, If I vote I wonder what penance I would be able to claim from you?

@DavidCarlisle tex.stackexchange.com/questions/728408/… ... \protected

@JosephWright I was thinking more "why use dodgy packages when list functions are provided by the format"

@DavidCarlisle Well yes but there are a lot of things that have only moved to the kernel relatively recently

@DavidCarlisle not completely. it fails if the table ends on an even page.

@DavidCarlisle you could be magnanimous?

@cfr ok

@JosephWright I tend to lose sympathy when I see \usepackage{ifthen}

@DavidCarlisle But how would you condition your sympathy without the ifthen package? :]

@mickep I believe Lua has an if construct

@DavidCarlisle THEN you can use that

@DavidCarlisle thank you.

@mickep ELSE I could eat the new arrival

@DavidCarlisle Oh, quack

@DavidCarlisle but IF there are cases where it is not at all obvious how to replace it, THEN your loss of sympathy might be questionable. (in page headers using marks, to pick an entirely hypothetical example.)

@DavidCarlisle o, na!

@DavidCarlisle why is listofitems dodgy?

@DavidCarlisle Indeed

@cfr well I meant ifthen (which I can insult as I wrote it) but I have not used listofitems but from the name I would expect its covered by the clist and seq functions that are already in the format so a package isn't needed

@DavidCarlisle that doesn't seem sufficient to qualify as 'dodgy' .... and expl3 has something of a learning curve anyway. (but in this case egreg already provided an expl3 solution to an earlier question.)

@DavidCarlisle Train, etc., mean email has just gone :)

@JosephWright does l3build check group level or only ifs?

@cfr Both

@JosephWright thanks. is there any way to flag a block of comments without flagging any particular comment? (or a way to flag one of my comments would do, but I don't think that's possible.)

@cfr No

@JosephWright thanks.

In other news, my Y4 PhD student has just finished drafting his thesis today: he was saying to my new one that 'LaTeX is much better than Word' :)

He has found that Overleaf runs out of steam for a full thesis - too long to compile the whole thing - but we have just installed TL'23 locally (lab PC) to build the full doc

Hopefully submission next week

@JosephWright Very good!

@mickep Indeed :)

@JosephWright I have one who will finish in a year or so.

@mickep Cool - I have three ATM - one just writing up, one I've picked up who has two years to go, one new one

@JosephWright Oh, that is very nice, a group of your own.

@mickep Has it's advantages - but at the moment we have no funding, so I have to work out where I get consumables from for the two in the lab - fun times

@JosephWright Oh, I hope your position is "safe" in any case.

@mickep Good enough ATM