huge table + footnote-ish thing

Question

I have a book, which is basically a 100-page table. I use xtab package to layout this book.

The book has a list of 100-ish definitions, which are referenced multiple times in the table. Think of a bank commission table, where there are many footnotes referenced multiple times, eg. 1) for this thing You need to have a gold credit card, 2) for this thing You need to have $1M in Your account, etc.

The numbering of the definitions is fixed (Say, this is a legal document). The definitions can have arbitrary numbering (like "1", "W" , "III").

What I want to be able to do, is for each of the definitions that are referenced on the page have them appear as footnotes (or something that resembles footnotes visually). Is this doable? Or at least partially doable?

Answer 1

So this lists A and i on the first page and i and w on the second, just listing once each, in the order of definition. It takes the page numbers for which cite to use on each page from the previous run so will take a couple of runs to settle down.

\documentclass{article}
\textheight.3\textheight
\paperheight.5\paperheight
\pdfpageheight\paperheight

\usepackage{longtable}
\makeatletter
\def\foopage#1#2{\global\expandafter\let\csname foopage-#1-#2\endcsname\@empty}

\let\foolist\@empty
\def\foodef#1#2{%
\g@addto@macro\foolist{{#1}}%
\@namedef{foo-#1}{#2}}

\def\foocite#1{%
\textsuperscript{#1}%
\let\reserved@a\relax
\protected@write\@auxout{}{\string\foopage{#1}{\thepage}}%
}

\def\fooloop{%
\expandafter\@tfor\expandafter\tmp\expandafter:\expandafter=\foolist\do{%
\expandafter\ifx\csname foopage-\tmp-\thepage\endcsname\@empty
\insert\footins{%
    \reset@font\footnotesize
    \interlinepenalty\interfootnotelinepenalty
    \splittopskip\footnotesep
    \splitmaxdepth \dp\strutbox \floatingpenalty \@MM
    \hsize\columnwidth \@parboxrestore
    \textsuperscript{\tmp}\csname foo-\tmp\endcsname}%
\fi
}}


% add the insert loop
\def\foopatch#1\output#2{%
\def\LT@start{#1\fooloop\output{\LT@output}}}
\expandafter\foopatch\LT@start


\def\foopatch#1\copy\LT@head\nobreak#2{%
\def\LT@output{#1\copy\LT@head\nobreak\fooloop#2}}
\expandafter\foopatch\LT@output


\begin{document}


\foodef{A}{Something about A.}
\foodef{i}{Something equally dull about i.}
\foodef{w}{In case you missed $x$ $y$ and $z$, here's $w$.}


\begin{longtable}{ll}
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\foocite{A}\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\foocite{i}\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\foocite{i}\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\foocite{w}\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\foocite{i}\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\foocite{w}\\
aaaa&bbb\\
aaaa&bbb\\
\end{longtable}


\end{document}