I just found out that
  \definenote[afootnote][rule={on,right}]
instead of
  \definenote[afootnote][rule=right]
works and places the footnote rule on the right-hand side.

Still wondering about how to get automatic right/left rules.

On Sun, Jan 3, 2016 at 1:22 PM, Mohammad Hossein Bateni <bateni@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> This has been previously discussed on the list but I didn't find a
> resolution to the issue.  It might as well be my fault since I didn't go
> through the entire archive and I am needless to say new to CONTEXT.
>
> In a bidi text (Persian/English in my case), I would like the footnote
> rule to be placed on the right-hand side if and only if the first line of
> the footnote text is RTL.  Is there a way this information can be obtained
> within a user-defined rulecommand.  Ideally I'd like a rule=autodir
> attribute for notes in addition to the current left & right.
>
> Speaking of which, the left & right rules do not seem to work, or I
> misunderstand their point.  When used (either left or right), the footnote
> rule disappears.
>
> \starttext
>
> \definenote[afootnote][paragraph=no,rule=right]
>
> \startalignment[r2l]
> righttoleft text\afootnote{\input ward }
> \input tufte
> \stopalignment
>
> \startalignment[l2r]
> lefttoright text\afootnote{\input ward}
> \input tufte
> \stopalignment
>
> \stoptext
>
> I see these defined in strc-not.mkvi
> <http://repo.or.cz/w/context.git/blob/HEAD:/tex/context/base/strc-not.mkvi> and
> still don't work with "% macros=mkvi" in the first line of the input file
> and when the file has extension mkvi.  Is this some issue of mkiv vs mkvi?
> For what it's worth, I don't notice a reference to MKVI in the compilation
> output.
>
> Back to the main question, I can define my own rule as follows:
>
> \unprotect
> \def\myfootrule{%
>  \ifvmode
>       \dontleavehmode \hskip.8\hsize\blackrule
>         [\c!color=\noteparameter\c!rulecolor,
>          \c!width=.2\hsize,
>          \c!height=\noteparameter\c!rulethickness,
>          \c!depth=\zeropoint]%
>       \endgraf
>       \kern\strutdepth
>     \fi}
> \protect
>
> Then I can use
>
> \definenote[afootnote][paragraph=no,rule=command,rulecommand=\myfootrule]
>
> to get a footnote rule on the right-hand side.  If I can figure out
> whether the first line of the footnote text is RTL or LTR, an if-statement
> can do the trick I want.
> Somewhat related to this, I was wondering whether it's possible to define
> two note commands, say \footnote and \afootnote, that use the same counter
> but are otherwise completely different.
>
> I use TeXLive 2015 on Mac OS X,
>          CONTEXT 2015.05.18 12:26, and
>          LuaTeX, Version beta-0.80.0 (TeX Live 2015) (rev 5238).
>
> Thanks a lot!
> —MHB
>