Suggest to support "clever references" with "+"

[dmitryperets]

Since pandoc-xnos seems to be dead for now and it doesn't really support pandoc 3.x (e.g. pandoc-fignos is broken due to the new AST format), migrating to this native LUA implementation sounds like a good idea. But it would be beneficial if we could keep the documents written for pandoc-xnos...

So one of the differences is the "clever references" feature available in pandoc-xnos. The difference is the following:

• pandoc-xnos:

  • @fig:myfigure is simply replaced with the number of the figure (e.g. 1).
  • +@fig:myfigure is replaced with the caption + number (e.g. Figure 1)

• luarefnos:

  • @fig:myfigure is replaced with the caption + number (e.g. Figure 1)

Ideally, my suggestion is to implement exactly the same syntax as pandoc-xnos.
But if that is too complex, maybe it is possible to implement deletion of the + sign right before the reference.

Explanation:

• Today @fig:myfigure in luarefnos does the same as +@fig:myfigure in pandoc-xnos. Namely, it emits caption + number (e.g. Figure 1)
• If someone has a document written for pandoc-xnos, they are likely to have something like:

  Please see +@fig:myfigure for more details.
  

• If they migrate to luarefnos, this line will be rendered as:

  Please see +Figure 1 for more details.
  

• So it is almost like the clever reference, but there is this + that should not be there...

[tstenner]

Sounds good, but it's not straightforward at all to implement this. @fig:myfigure is parsed as a native Citation:

ts@liag0002:~$ echo '@fig:myfigure' | pandoc -t native
[ Para
    [ Cite
        [ Citation
            { citationId = "fig:myfigure"
            , citationPrefix = []
            , citationSuffix = []
            , citationMode = AuthorInText
            , citationNoteNum = 1
            , citationHash = 0
            }
        ]
        [ Str "@fig:myfigure" ]
    ]
]
$ echo '+@fig:myfigure' | pandoc -t native
[ Para
    [ Str "+"
    , Cite
        [ Citation
            { citationId = "fig:myfigure"
            , citationPrefix = []
            , citationSuffix = []
            , citationMode = AuthorInText
            , citationNoteNum = 1
            , citationHash = 0
            }
        ]
        [ Str "@fig:myfigure" ]
    ]
]

This is handled by the citation handler.

+@fig:myfigure is parsed as the string + followed by the citation, so it's not possible to match on prefixes before the @ sign.

[tstenner]

$ echo '+@fig:myfigure' | pandoc -t native
[ Para
    [ Str "+"
    , Cite
        [ Citation
            { citationId = "fig:myfigure"
            , citationPrefix = []
            , citationSuffix = []
            , citationMode = AuthorInText
            , citationNoteNum = 1
            , citationHash = 0
            }
        ]
        [ Str "@fig:myfigure" ]
    ]
]