Re: [Docutils-users] Scientific article example

[Paul T. <pau...@gm...>]

On 10/17/11 9:39 AM, Alan G Isaac wrote:
> On 10/17/2011 9:08 AM, Paul Tremblay wrote:
>> But what if the citation requires other information, such as a volume
>> number? I think a more flexible solution would involve CSV within the
>> citation:
>>
>> [imauthor-2011-jdu 55 X "Spring and Summer"]_
>
> I suppose from your example that you mean *space* separated values.
>
> The format I proposed in much more powerful, in that
> it allows identification of each field.  I chose it
> for resemblance to a Python dict.
>
> But more to the point, the information you are talking
> about is not specific to a single citation reference instance;
> it belongs to the entire citation.  So that is where it should go,
> not in the citation reference.
>
> (Actually, where it should go is in a bibliographic database
> that is accessed using the citation reference key. You can
> have this basic functionality via bibstuff.)
>
>
A space is a legal identifier in a CSV field. My example is CSV. If it 
were just space separated, then it would see the string "Spring and 
Summer" as 3 different fields; CSV reads them as one.

The info I am talking about is not in the bibliographic database, but in 
the actual citation. For example, the author cited above may point to a 
multi volume work. The citation needs to point to not only the page, but 
the volumes. For example, in MLA format:

"It is noted by prominent critics that Homer was most likely not blind 
from birth (Bergonzi, p 55, vol. X)."

The reference looks like:

Bergonzi, James: *The Ancients." New York: Some Publishing House. 2001

In rst:

"It is noted by prominent critics that Homer was most likely not blind 
from birth [Begonzi, 55 X]_"

<some type of database here, such as
   author: Bergonzi, James
   book: The Ancients
   Pub-place: New York
   Pub-name: Some Publishing House
 >

(Note: the "Spring and Summer" in my original entry was a bogus example, 
in which I was trying to show that actual citations sometimes have to 
include multiple fields.)

But if you think psuedo dictionaries would work, then my example could 
very well be

[imauthor-2011-jdu {p:55} {vol:X} {time-of-year:Spring and Summer}]_

At first glance, your method would be easier to parse. In my method, the "time-of-year" field always has to be third. So if there is not volume, it looks like:

  [imauthor-2011-jdu 55 "" "Spring and Summer"]_

Whereas your method, not needing an empty middle field, looks like:

[imauthor-2011-jdu {p:55}  {time-of-year:Spring and Summer}]_

In fact, why not combine the two methods? If there is just a page number (the case probably 90% of the time,), simply use a space:

[imauthor-2011-jdu 55]_

For more complicated entries, use the dictionary format.

Paul