Missing space between Translator and Publisher, MLA:Book

[jeremydouglass]

I've been struggling to fix a weird output in the format of MLA:Book, and I need help. There is a missing space between translator and publisher, and I can't figure out how to add it.

Output:

Author, The. Sample Title, trans. Mister Translation.Publisher.

Fields:

Authors: Author, The
Title: Sample Title
Publisher: Publisher
Translator: Translator, Mister

I've tried modifying the string (which ships with Bookends 9) a dozen ways, but no luck. Suggestions?

a. t, u11. $trans. $u3*~.~$ $f, $ed++. $e, u2$ ed.$, $ vol. $v$, $u13$ vols.$~ ~l: u, d.$ $u12`.`

[Jon]

You are really stressing the format by leaving so many fields empty. But the solution is to put a forward binding quote around the space before publisher:

a. t, u11. $trans. $u3*~.~$ $f, $ed++. $e, u2$ ed.$, $ vol. $v$, $u13$ vols.$~ ~l:|~ ~u, d.$ $u12`.`

Jon
Sonny Software

[jeremydouglass]

Because this is a very similar issue with understanding how binding affect format fields, I'm adding it to the same thread.

The MLA journal format doesn't quite handle missing page numbers correctly.** I want the : to drop when the page numbers are missing, but I can't get it to bind correctly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This is the default Format Manager string Bookends ships with:

a. "t." f. v.i` `(d): p-.

...which, in an example with no page numbers, outputs like this:

Bailey, Charles. "Digital Dystopia?" Information Technology and Libraries. 25.3 (2006):

...and which I want to look like this:

Bailey, Charles. "Digital Dystopia?" Information Technology and Libraries. 25.3 (2006)

Can you give me any advice?

If it is helpful, here is what I've tried:

I tried binding the : to p using ~ ...

a. "t." f. v.i` `(d)~: ~p-.

...but that also eats the close paren, like this...

Bailey, Charles. "Digital Dystopia?" Information Technology and Libraries. 25.3 (2006

...so I tried breaking the binding to the close paren with | as per the User Guide p112...

a. "t." f. v.i` `(d)|~: ~p-.

...but the close paren is still missing...

...so I tried binding the close paren to d...

a. "t." f. v.i` `(d~)~|~: ~p-.

... still, missing the close paren...

Bailey, Charles. "Digital Dystopia?" Information Technology and Libraries. 25.3 (2006

I've read and reread the manual, and I think I understand the principles of binding, but I can't understand the behavior I'm getting.

Thanks for any suggestions.



** (when articles are distributed in prepress PDF form or only online but not as a website, for example, they lack journal page numbers).

[Jon]

...and which I want to look like this:

Bailey, Charles. "Digital Dystopia?" Information Technology and Libraries. 25.3 (2006)

Can you give me any advice?

How about

a. "t." f. v.i` `(d`)`~: ~p-.


Jon
Sonny Software

[jeremydouglass]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I can use `` - but I think that mean that now, instead of having a trailing : problem when there are no page numbers, I instead have an even worse trailing ) problem if there is no date.

In an ideal world, I'd always have complete information for every source - but in reality I work with a lot of sources of unclear provenance. I'm just trying to figure out how to get the format to degrade gracefully.

Is there a technical reason that things won't break from a ) ? The sooner I figure out how breaking works, the sooner I can never bug you again (about that). Perhaps if I included an extra space between ) and : ?

[Jon]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I can use `` - but I think that mean that now, instead of having a trailing : problem when there are no page numbers, I instead have an even worse trailing ) problem if there is no date.

Change one small things, then:

a. "t." f. v.i` (`d`)`~: ~p-.


Jon
Sonny Software

[jeremydouglass]

Ooh. Elegant.

So, force-quoted matching sets of paranthesis are stripped out if and only if empty? You know, actually, never mind. It works, and I'm going to use that trick on other things now.

Thank you!