Why is a blank line added before a description environment when placed in a footnote in ConTeXt?

Question

I would like to place a description environment inside a footnote, e.g.:

\definedescription[descr][headstyle=normal, style=normal, width=3em]
\starttext
    This is some text.\footnote{\startdescr{Label} This is a footnote.\stopdescr}
\stoptext

When I compile this code, it places the footnote number, but then skips an extra line before displaying the description environment, e.g.:

This is some text.~1

  -----
1
  Label   This is a footnote.

How can I get it to appear like this?

This is some text.~1

  -----
1 Label   This is a footnote.

Answer 1

The default setup for definitions sets before=\blank; so you get a blank before \startdesc. You can get rid of it by setting before= in footnotes. However, that alone does not work correctly with the default setup. Both the footnotes (which are implemented as descriptions) and descriptions default to alternative=left to place the label. And the label of user-defined description get placed to the right of the footnote symbol, which, of course you do not want. One solution is to use another style for your own descriptions (I use `alternative=serried):

\definedescription[descr]
                  [headstyle=normal, style=normal, width=3em, alternative=serried]

\startsetups footnotedescription
  \setupdescription[descr][before=]
\stopsetups

\setupfootnotes[setups={footnotedescription}]

\starttext
    This is some text.\footnote{\startdescr{Label} This is a footnote.\stopdescr}
\stoptext