On Thursday 20 Adar II 5765 9:15 am, Bruce D'Arcus wrote:
> On Mar 30, 2005, at 5:42 PM, David Wilson wrote:
> > I understand that different language may need different sorting
> > routines.
>
> I think I'm not being clear.  Here's what I originally posted:
>
> I'm working on sorting configuration, but am running into a fundamental
> design question:
>
> When dealing with reference lists, is the first field always the sort
> key?
>
> For example, in a typical reference list, the creator name will be the
> sort key.  If there is no creator, there needs to be rules to specify
> substitutes.  For a book, it might be to substitute the phrase
> "Anonymous."  For an article, it might be to substitute the periodical
> title.
>
> In a cite key style citation class, likewise, it seems the sort key is
> the citation key; e.g.:
>
> [doe99] Doe, J. ...
>
> Is this a reliable general rule then?  Or should instead the layout and
> the sorting be seen as completely separate?
>
I think it would be safer to keep them separate. There are so many variations 
and special cases, if they are separate one can always add in new pre-sorting 
rules, it will be harder to change the structure of the coding for a case 
that does not fit the the first field always the sort key rule.

Also if they are separated then we could allow the user to add a special 
sorting requirements themselves. Rather than trying to fix the sort order by 
change the creator name (incorrectly) just to make the sort work.

> I'm leaning towards a structure like:
>
> <reftype name="article" sort-key="creator"
> alternate-sort-key="container-title">
>
> It's possible for me to do some RELAX NG magic and condition the layout
> of the following elements based on the sort-key value, but I'm not sure
> I should do that or not.
>
> The other issue I've not resolved is how to handle CDATA, though one
> solution is to have:
>
> <reftype name="article">
>    <sort>
>      <primary>creator</primary>
>      <secondary type="variable">container-title</secondary>
> <!-- "variable" is probably not the right value name, but I can't think
> of a better one -->
>    </sort>
>
> <reftype name="book">
>    <sort>
>      <primary>creator</primary>
>      <secondary type="text">Anonymous</secondary>
>    </sort>
>
> Bruce
>
>
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