New way to specify unprefixed URLs in styles

CSL Evolution
1

I don’t have the MLA Handbook 9th edition, but the 8th edition says in 2.5.2 URLs and DOIs :

When giving a URL, copy it in full from your Web browser, but omit http:// or https://.

but modern-language-association.csl just copies the URL that is given as argument. I think it would be best if the style could remove the http:// and https:// prefixes. It is currently not possible to indicate that an URL should be output without the prefix, I think there could be a new markup to do so, perhaps something like <text variable="URL" url-style="remove-protocol"/> ?

see removing http:// and https:// from URLs in MLA · Issue #5545 · citation-style-language/styles · GitHub

2

Sorry for the late reply.

That’s indeed kind of awkward.

We should probably consider this along with the recent suggestions we added to the spec document on handling links.

cc @bwiernik @Denis_Maier

3

Would a new value for @form make sense here? (Obviously, the problem is that URLs are currently rendered with text, so adding a new attribute like @url-style or a new value for @form will potentially cause headaches for other variables. E.g. what is <text variable="title url-style=“no-protocol”/> supposed to mean?)

4

I think it makes a lot of sense yes!

5

So, I’m not entirely sure what the next step is… should I open an issue on the schema git repository?

6

I think so; yes.

If you haven’t already, you might take a look at this section on links I mentioned above, which is just a first stab at it.