Re: Expanding how the new cite syntax is used to include cross-references - thoughts?

[Bruce D'Arcus]

Hi John,

On Tue, Aug 10, 2021 at 8:58 PM John Kitchin <jkitchin@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:

> ... I would like what I call an orthogonal approach for cross-references, 
> orthogonal in the sense that it can coexist with org-ref, but not require 
> org-ref if you don't use it. The built in internal links like [[label]] lack 
> the flexibility I need (I think), e.g. to differentiate a typical reference 
> from an equation reference (these map to \ref{label} and \eqref{label} in 
> latex for example), and there are other references that are relevant in latex 
> also like \pageref{label}, \cref{label} etc.

Granting the current "lack of flexibility" of internal links, what
about extending them to allow an optional type; like:

[[eq:label]]
[[table:label]]

... etc?

It could work based on similar logic as citation styles, namely that
content preceding some delimiter (in the examples above, the hyphen)
would be an optional link type. As you say, it could even have a
similar style/variant structure as citations.

Perhaps a handful such link types could be reserved, for obvious org
link targets (like tables, equations, figures, etc), but it would be
flexible beyond that.

Would that not work?

Because if it could, that would seem to be a better solution, both for
cross-references, and for citations.

I do grant there may be a challenge with legacy documents adding such
an optional type, but perhaps there's a solution to that problem?

Bruce