Re: [Refdb-users] The case against <middlename>

[Bruce D'A. <bd...@fa...>]

First, a suggestion Markus: can you change the reply-to behavior to 
point to the list?

On Dec 9, 2003, at 8:08 PM, Markus Hoenicka wrote:

> However, the discussion about middlename forgets one fact that we
> can't simply ignore. While it might be desirable to drop middlename in
> order to make the markup more culture-agnostic, the main purpose of
> RefDB is to format bibliographies according to publisher's
> specifications. If you don't like middle names or middle initials,
> you'll have to file a motion with the publishers of scientific
> journals to remove these.

Let's consider examples:

James C. Scott

So we could have:

1)

<first>James</first>
<middle>C.</middle>
<last>Scott</last>

2)

<first>James</first>
<middle>C</middle>
<last>Scott</last>

3)

<first>James C.</first>
<last>Scott</last>

4)

<given>James C.</given>
<family>Scott</family>

5)

<given>James</given>
<given>C.</given>
<family>Scott</family>

I find all of them problematic, frankly, because we don't have a way to 
know whether a name is initialized or not.  But I wonder if 5 wouldn't 
be a solution.  I personally would code it as 4 and expect the software 
and to figure out how to format it on output.

I note that Peter's bibliofile DTD does not include middle names.  
Maybe this is worth exploring some more?

<!ELEMENT author (prefix?,name,name,name,suffix?)>
<!ELEMENT editor (prefix?,name,name,name,suffix?)>
<!ELEMENT name (prefix?,(%names;)*,suffix?)>
<!ELEMENT forename (prefix?,default?,suffix?)>
<!ELEMENT surname (prefix?,default?,suffix?)>
<!ELEMENT namelink (prefix?,default?,suffix?)>
<!ELEMENT genname (prefix?,default?,suffix?)>
<!ELEMENT rolename (prefix?,default?,suffix?)>
<!ELEMENT addname (prefix?,default?,suffix?)>
<!ELEMENT orgname (prefix?,default?,suffix?)>
<!ELEMENT placename (prefix?,default?,suffix?)>
<!ATTLIST author %format;>
<!ATTLIST editor %format;>
<!ATTLIST name %format;>
<!ATTLIST forename %format;>
<!ATTLIST surname %format;>
<!ATTLIST namelink %format;>
<!ATTLIST genname %format;>
<!ATTLIST rolename %format;>
<!ATTLIST addname %format;>
<!ATTLIST orgname %format;>
<!ATTLIST placename %format;>

Bruce