Re: wip-cite status question and feedback

[Nicolas Goaziou]

Hello,

Denis Maier <denismaier@mailbox.org> writes:

> However, as I've said before, this behaviour is only correct in
> American English. TO quuote the Chicago Manual of Style 6.9: "In an
> alternative system, sometimes called British Style (as described in
> the /New Oxford Style Manual ...) ... only those punctuation points
> that appeared in the original material are included within the
> quotation marks." The same would be correct for German. Do you have an
> idea if/how this could be implemented?

This punctuation dance is done through an optional argument in
`org-cite-wrap-citation' (off by default). It is up to the citation
processors to activate it, according to their own rules, e.g., after
checking "language" keyword with

  (plist-get info :language)

or simply by letting users decide what to do through a defcustom.

I don't think we can do more in that area.

> Again the Chicago Manual, 6.10: "Colons and semicolons---unlike
> periods and commas---follow closing quotation marks; question marks
> and exclamation points follow closing quoation marks unless they
> belong within the quoted matter."

I understand colons and semicolons should not move within the quote. But
should they be moved before the note? I.e., should the following happen

               ... foo" [cite:@a];     =>    ... foo";[1]

or should it be?

               ... foo" [cite:@a];     =>    ... foo"[1];

IIUC, commas should also be moved within the quotes:

               ... foo" [cite:@a],     =>    ... foo,"[1]

Am I correct?

Concerning question marks and exclamation points, I assume we can safely
consider that if they belong to the quoted matter, they are already
included in the quotes. So the only case left to consider is the
following:

               ... foo" [cite:@a]?     =>    ... foo"?[1]

Is that right?

> I don't know if there is a general rule and how much of this should be
> configurable. How costly would that be?

I'd like to avoid any configuration variable in "oc.el", which is only
meant to be as the toolbox for processor developers. 

However, if required, configuration would happen through an optional
argument, possibly the same as the one activating the punctuation dance.
I.e., when non-nil, it can only provide a list of punctuation characters
to consider moving around, with rules explaining if they should be
included in a preceding quote.

Since this would be backward compatible, we don't need to implement it
for now if the use-case is, at this point, purely hypothetical.

Thank you for the feedback!

Regards,
-- 
Nicolas Goaziou