Style Error: MLA

gizwomack
This is my first posting, so apologies if I've missed something or made an error. Please feel free to correct me.

The Zotero MLA parenthetical citation in MS Word uses an "&" rather than an "and" between multiple authors. But sites like http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla specifically say to use "and" rather than "&".

Is this an error? Maybe I'm just missing something? (I did try to search the discussion for this.) Again apologies for any errors on my part.
  • adamsmith
    oops - you're right, don't know how I missed that -
    I'll try to fix this asap, but if someone else gets to this before that'd be great.
  • ajlyon
    Fixed
  • brazuca
    While you guys are at it, can someone post the latest English and Spanish biblio styles for UN ECLAC?

    Also, what should I put for the <link ... info? Right now I have a null http address. Should there be some ID number?

    I've posted them both at pastie:

    English: http://pastebin.com/ikDBsKXU
    Spanish: http://pastebin.com/Hg0vaRtQ

    PS: any tips on improving it are welcome
  • ajlyon
    I'm going to leave that one to adamsmith or someone else with actual CSL experience. I know just enough to make one-line fixes and post them to the repository.
  • RintzeRintze
    edited March 25, 2010
    <id>http://www.zotero.org/styles/null-EN</id>
    <link href="http://www.zotero.org/styles/null-EN"/>
    The value of the href attribute of the link element indicates where the style can be found online. The link element (carrying a correct URL) is required for automatic updating of styles (i.e. if a change is made to a style in the Zotero Style Repository, this change gets automatically pushed to all Zotero clients that have this style installed). For styles stored in the Zotero Style Repository, the URL should be:
    "http://www.zotero.org/styles/" + file name (without the ".csl" extension)
    E.g. the APA style is stored in the file apa.csl, and has the URL:
    <link href="http://www.zotero.org/styles/apa"/>
    The value of the id element should be something unique, so Zotero (or any other CSL application) knows which style is which. By using the same URL you used earlier for the link element, you don't run the risk of having two styles with the same ID.
  • brazuca
    Thanks for the info. How would I go about adding a style to the Repository? I don't have a CVS, but I do update it every few months as we work out the bugs.

    We are also planning on deploying this institution-wide, so it would be nice to have it auto-update when I make a change.
  • ajlyon
    There were some schema validation issues that I went through and cleaned up-- to see the changes, look at http://github.com/ajlyon/zotero-bits/commit/a68c1b1e95945601e9384ff5277bd6b7a0441636 . Once we add this to the repository, any updates to the style will be automatically picked up by Zotero users.

    I can post this to the repository, but first I want to make sure that you're approaching multiple locales correctly-- from looking at the styles for English and Spanish, it looks like most of the differences are just in term definitions. Could this be created as a single style with support for multiple locales? Also, should the Spanish version be defining Spanish terms for the English locale?
  • dstillman
    if a change is made to a style in the Zotero Style Repository, this change gets automatically pushed to all Zotero clients that have this style installed
    Once we add this to the repository, any updates to the style will be automatically picked up by Zotero users.
    This is actually currently only the case for the default styles, but it's something we hope to implement for all styles for 2.1.
  • brazuca
    @ajlyon:
    Thanks for looking at the code. I'll have the look at the delimiter change you made to see if it results in the correct output for all the cases. I know the whole thing is a mess.

    The issue of locales is confusing to me. AFAIK, the locale is still set by the user's FF preference. We need to allow the user to select either language based on the publication he/she is writing, not on the FF installation. In other words, if I'm writing an article in English, how would I tell Zotero to format the biblio in the same language? How would I swtich?

    I remember that there was also some issue with the processor having a bug so that the CSL couldn't specify the language in the code.

    I wrote it this way at the time, but if there is a better way, I'm all for it.

    I see that the Spanish version is modifying the EN locale. I actually need to modify everything so that even if you are working on a French FF and select the Spanish version, the output would be correct. How to do this?
  • ajlyon
    The delimiter change had to be made, since the delimiter attribute is not valid for <if> statements.

    As for the locale issues, I don't know the details. Perhaps someone else with more experience can give some useful feedback.
  • RintzeRintze
    Dan Stillman: This is actually currently only the case for the default styles
    Whoops. Sorry for spreading misinformation. I guess I should use Zotero more often :).
    brazuca: if I'm writing an article in English, how would I tell Zotero to format the biblio in the same language? How would I swtich?
    See http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/bibliographies_in_different_languages
    brazuca: I remember that there was also some issue with the processor having a bug so that the CSL couldn't specify the language in the code.
    See http://citationstyles.org/downloads/upgrade-notes.html#default-locale
  • brazuca
    @Rintze:
    "brazuca: if I'm writing an article in English, how would I tell Zotero to format the biblio in the same language? How would I swtich?"

    That doens't answer the question, though. Whatever my default language in Firefox, I need to choose the biblio style according to the work I'm doing at the time. I may write an article in English today, and one in Spanish tomorrow. AFAIK, the only way to do this with only one CSL is to switch the default FF language when I want to switch biblio languages.

    I opted for letting the user select a biblio language per publication by selecting one of 2 CSL styles.
  • brazuca
    edited March 26, 2010
    On the issue of language, since the Spanish version is moditying english terms, should I add this line to both CSL's?

    <style default-locale="en-US"/>

    Am I right to assume that this would force the CSL into english, regardless of what language the user's Firefox is set to?
  • RintzeRintze
    AFAIK, the only way to do this with only one CSL is to switch the default FF language when I want to switch biblio languages.
    As explained in the link I gave above, changing the value of the extensions.zotero.export.bibliographyLocale preference only affects the locale in which the citations and bibliographies are rendered. It doesn't change the locale of Firefox. Note that there are plans to make it easier to change this locale setting: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/2041/changing-language-settings-of-citation/?Focus=57643#Comment_57643
    Am I right to assume that this would force the CSL into english, regardless of what language the user's Firefox is set to?
    Yes, that's what should happen in Zotero 2.1 (the first version of Zotero that will support CSL 1.0).
  • brazuca
    @ajlyon: Did you do the validation above agoinst the CSL 1.0 or the older 0.8? I'm just now reading about updating my CSL to the new version (which I'm assuming is in the current Zotero 2.0 engine).
  • RintzeRintze
    edited March 26, 2010
    which I'm assuming is in the current Zotero 2.0 engine
    I should have made this clear earlier, but this is not the case. CSL 1.0 support is scheduled for Zotero 2.1.
  • ajlyon
    I validated against CSL 0.8. My understanding is that there will be an automated process to convert valid CSL 0.8 styles into valid CSL 1.0 styles.
  • brazuca
    @ajlyon:
    "The delimiter change had to be made, since the delimiter attribute is not valid for <if> statements."

    Are you sure? Removing it changes the output, and keeping it works well. Is this just a matter of good form?

    PS: sorry for completely hijacking this thread.
  • ajlyon
    Well, it doesn't validate:
    $ rnv csl/csl-0.8.rnc UN_ECLAC_CEPAL_EN.csl
    UN_ECLAC_CEPAL_EN.csl
    UN_ECLAC_CEPAL_EN.csl:207:3: error: attribute ^delimiter not allowed
    required:
    after
    allowed:
    attribute ^type
    attribute ^is-numeric
    attribute ^is-date
    attribute ^position
    attribute ^disambiguate
    attribute ^locator
    element http://purl.org/net/xbiblio/csl^names
    element http://purl.org/net/xbiblio/csl^date
    element http://purl.org/net/xbiblio/csl^label
    element http://purl.org/net/xbiblio/csl^text
    element http://purl.org/net/xbiblio/csl^number
    element http://purl.org/net/xbiblio/csl^choose
    element http://purl.org/net/xbiblio/csl^group
    error: some documents are invalid
  • brazuca
    Weird, but it works in the wrong form, as does using the "sentencecase" instead of "sentence".
  • ajlyon
    Perhaps you can post example citations to show what your citations look like with and without the "delimiter" attribute? Then perhaps we can find a way to do this without violated the schema. Validation matters because only valid styles can reasonably be expected to convert nicely to CSL 1.0 and to work in differented clients (i.e., Mendeley).
  • brazuca
    I reworked my delimiters to avoid using this method and to avoid the problem with creating a <group> followed by a conditional (which breaks the conditional). I think I have this solved.

    On the issue of sentencecase, I was reading my output wrong, and it indeed only works as you corrected it.

    Everything seems to validate well now, thanks!
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