==Some more thoughts==

The great thing about Wikipedia references and one which I will try to reproduce whether or not creole makes it part of the spec is the ability to automatically list all the references at the end of the page.

Logically a reference placer ought to be something in the form:-
{{{
[Bugs and how to find them, Isonomia 2008|#]
}}}

Which on the face of it says: the text "bugs and ...." should be replaced by an empty internal reference or alternatively it could be thought to say "bugs and ...." should be replaced by a number (#). As this is what a reference is, I would suggest something like this.

There are then two additional problems:

# How to refer to the same reference a second time
# How to put a place holder for the list.

Now I suppose, if internal references are tied to headings as I suggested on the [[Intra Page Links]] then "=" is an unlikely symbol in the link (especially as it can't be used in the hyperlink).

So how about a naming convention:-

{{{
This is a some text about bugs[Bugs and how to find them, Isonomia 2008|#=Bugs]
...
This is more text with the same reference [#=Bugs] ...
and this is yet another reference where I want to have the same reference[#=Bugs]
}}}

Which just leaves the question of how to trigger the creation of the reference table. Here are some suggestions:

{{{
1. [#] 
2. [##]
}}}
The first probably is ambiguous because if [#ref] means a link to http://www.example.com/thispage.htm#ref then [#] really means: "make a hyperlink to http://www.example.com/thispage.htm# i.e. the top of the page.

The second means "make a hyperlink to #" or "make a link to number" which if that were to produce a list of references with back links to the numbers/references would be quite logical:-

[^|#ref1] Bugs and how to find them, Isonomia 2008\\
[^|#ref2] Bugs and how to find them, Isonomia 20008

-----------------------------------
OK, I've now realised that 
{{{
[Bugs and how to find them, Isonomia 2008|#]
}}}
Is illogical because '#' implies a reference to this page. But I now see it would be logical to have:-
{{{
[Bugs and how to find them, Isonomia 2008|##]
or alternatively:-
[#Bugs and how to find them, Isonomia 2008]
}}}
And another as such there is no need for ##= so additional references should be done using the syntax:-
{{{
First reference[Bugs and how to find them, Isonomia 2008|##Bugs]
Second reference[##Bugs]
More reference to same reference [##Bugs]
==Refences==
[##]
}}}

===Footnotes===
Whilst I'm not a great fan of footnotes, it seems that references and footnotes need a similar notation.
So given the list # & * I would propose a parallel footnote system:-

Some text {{{[This is a footnote|#*]}}} or {{{[This is a footnote|**]}}} or some more text with alternative style {{{[*This is another footnote]}}}

<End of normal text>
{{{==Footnotes==
[**]}}}

{{{==References==
[##]}}}
 

After all this I quite like the {{{[*footnote]}}} and {{{[#reference]}}} style but there is nowhere to put the label, so how about if {{{[*footnote]}}} requries a label use the syntax:-

{{{[*Footnote*<Label>]}}} which logically shrinks if the following references do not include the reference/footnote to the form:-

{{{[**<label>]}}} or {{{[##<label>]}}}

Yep. I think I have the proposal:

# References in the form: {{{[#<reference>]}}}
# References with label: {{{[#<reference>#<label>]
# References to same labelled reference {{{[##<label>]}}}
# Force creation of list of above reference {{{[##]}}}
# Footnotes in the form: {{{[*<footnote>]}}}
# Footnotes with labels as per references.
# Force creation of list of footnotes {{{[**]}}}
 
[[Isonomia]] -- 2008, Apr 28