Et-al clarification request

CSL Development
1

The et-al documentation refers to "the number of names in a name variable.”

Given <names variable="author editor”>, does that mean the total number of authors + editors, or authors and editors considered separately?

In other words, if et-al-use-first is 3, et-al-min is 4 and there are six authors and four editors, are three total names shown or six total names?

I assumed the former but I encountered a test that seems to require the latter.

2

It’s per variable (with author and editor being separate variables), i.e. 3 both, six total.This also makes sense in citation practice: Think of a style with the more common 3/1 et al rule for the common <names variable="editor translator"> and 3+ editors and translators each:

You’d then get something like Smith et al. (eds.); Meyer et al. (transl.). Reducing this to a single name would be impossible.

3

Thanks! That makes sense.