Re: bibliography with certain canonical reference

Hi Julian,

I think I have now identified the difficulty more precisely. In 
ConTeXt’s current APA implementation, citations are essentially built 
around the author–date model, and the bibliographic categories do not 
naturally provide a field for a conventional siglum such as |GS|. This 
is why |righttext| does not replace the core citation: it is simply 
appended to it.

The key |alternative=short| is also somewhat misleading in this context. 
It does not mean “use a free bibliographic abbreviation such as GS”; 
rather, it refers to ConTeXt’s own internally generated short-form 
mechanism. So it is important to clarify exactly what this |short| does 
— and what it does not do.

Technically, ConTeXt does preserve an additional BibTeX field such as 
|shorthand={GS}|, and I have verified that it can be read back directly. 
The difficulty is that the current APA specification does not recognize 
|shorthand| as a normal field for a |book| entry, so the standard APA 
citation machinery ignores it. Moreover, |alternative=short| does not 
mean “use my siglum”; it invokes an internally generated short form. The 
problem, therefore, is not storing |GS|, but finding a clean way to make 
APA use that stored value as the citation form.

With SBL, this difficulty is much less artificial, because the style is 
specifically designed for scholarly references in which one can more 
naturally distinguish between the full bibliographic record, the 
conventional abbreviation of a work or document, and the internal 
locator. This is precisely one of the aspects I am currently documenting 
for ConTeXt.

I am nevertheless looking for an elegant solution that stays within APA 
for your particular case. The encouraging point is that ConTeXt already 
knows how to preserve and retrieve |shorthand={GS}|; what remains is to 
integrate that value cleanly into a reusable citation form, without 
misusing the |author| field or hard-coding |GS| in the document.

JP


Le 19/08/2026 à 05:43, jbf a écrit :
>
> I was able to add a shortauthor = {GS} in the .bibfile and tried 
> alternative=short in \cite. Together with the appropriate righttext it 
> results in (<empty>, GS §22) so almost there, in a way, if we could 
> avoid that <empty>, but maybe we can't.
>
> Julian
>
> On 17/8/26 20:26, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context wrote:
>>
>> Julian,
>>
>> Thanks — that is very useful, and I think we are now essentially there.
>>
>> Since |righttext| is appended literally after the author, could you 
>> try including the comma there as well?
>>
>> (\cite
>> [alternative=author,
>> righttext={{, ca. 350 BCE/2009}}]
>> [main::aristotle2009ethics])
>>
>> If it behaves as your previous test suggests, this should give:
>>
>> (Aristotle, ca. 350 BCE/2009)
>>
>> That would be a pleasantly simple solution: |alternative=author| 
>> supplies the author, while |righttext| supplies the 
>> historical/edition dating information without requiring any change to 
>> the bibliography data or the APA rendering itself.
>>
>> It would also be worth checking afterwards whether the outer 
>> parentheses can be handled by the citation machinery itself, but I 
>> would first confirm this minimal form.
>>
>> JP
>>
>> * Aristotle might add one complication: if character is formed by 
>> repeated action, those repeated actions cannot themselves be 
>> normatively neutral. A just /hexis/ (ἕξις) requires the practice of 
>> just actions, which in turn requires some prior account of what 
>> counts as just. This is one reason why the /Nicomachean Ethics/ leads 
>> so naturally into the /Politics/: the formation of character depends 
>> on laws, education, and ultimately on the ordering of the political 
>> community.
>>
>>
>> Le 17/08/2026 à 11:16, jbf a écrit :
>>>
>>> Before retiring for the night I have quickly checked out your 
>>> suggestion (and don't worry about the change of date to 2009, since 
>>> this is the real date I need to deal with):
>>>
>>> [alternative=author,
>>>
>>> righttext={{ca. 350 BCE/2009}}]
>>>
>>> [main::aristotle2009ethics]
>>>
>>>
>>> produces:
>>>
>>> Aristotle ca. 350 BCE/2009
>>>
>>> Nearly there, so to get parentheses around it and 
>>> produce (Aristotle, ca. 350 BCE/2009), this is how I treated the 
>>> entire paragraph where the citation appears:
>>>
>>>
>>> Aristotle understood that character is formed through repeated 
>>> action. We become just or unjust, courageous or cowardly, temperate 
>>> or self-indulgent through what we repeatedly choose and practise (\cite
>>>
>>> [alternative=author,
>>>
>>> righttext={{ca. 350 BCE/2009}}]
>>>
>>> [main::aristotle2009ethics]). Actions become habits, habits shape 
>>> character, and character influences what becomes easier or harder to 
>>> perceive and choose. Human beings remain capable of change, but 
>>> freedom gradually acquires a history.
>>>
>>>
>>> Julian
>>> On 17/8/26 17:35, Jean-Pierre Delange via ntg-context wrote:
>>>>
>>>> No problem at all, Julian — take your time. Translation work has a 
>>>> way of absorbing the whole day!
>>>> I’ll be interested to hear what you get from the test when you have 
>>>> a chance to try it.
>>>> Have a good evening.
>>>>
>>>> JP
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Le 17/08/2026 à 09:07, jbf a écrit :
>>>>>
>>>>> Caught up in other work right now JP (translation), and already 
>>>>> evening here, so it might be tomorrow before I can get back to 
>>>>> this. I'll let you know how it goes.
>>>>>
>>>>> Julian
>>>>>
>>>>
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>>
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>
> ___________________________________________________________________________________
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>
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