<substitute> question

While I’m digesting what I’ve learned about disambiguation, here’s one
more threshold question that’s been on my mind. I’m not sure how
interacts with formatting decorations (like italic and
small-caps).

The element, used inside within a
names environment, seems to say “if the main names variable is nil,
get the name data from this variable instead and try again”. If I
understand things correctly, the names variable can be declared simply
with a singleton in this case, because the formatting to be
applied to it are given in the (full-form) names layout with which it
is associated. If I’ve got that correct so far, it makes sense.

Two things puzzle me after this point.

First, many styles give one or more non-name “fallback” entries in the
list of singletons inside . Often these are
macros. Are the formatting decorations of these meant to be fixed in
the same way as substitute name variables – are the formatting
attributes contained in the macro and its sub-objects meant to be
replaced in some way? Or should macros just render as macros,
replacing the entire names construct?

A related question is whether formatting decorations can be overridden
for name fields called via . If a style were to call for
different typeface conventions for an editor, for example, is there a
way to force the use of those special formatting attributes for a name
used via a declaration, or would the style then need to
use a combination of environments instead?

Again, these questions come out of lack of experience. Any guidance
greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Frank

First, many styles give one or more non-name “fallback” entries in the
list of singletons inside . Often these are
macros. Are the formatting decorations of these meant to be fixed in
the same way as substitute name variables – are the formatting
attributes contained in the macro and its sub-objects meant to be
replaced in some way? Or should macros just render as macros,
replacing the entire names construct?

I think it only make sense to support the latter, though I do think
this sometimes results in some weird output if people aren’t thinking
about it as they write the style.

A related question is whether formatting decorations can be overridden
for name fields called via . If a style were to call for
different typeface conventions for an editor, for example, is there a
way to force the use of those special formatting attributes for a name
used via a declaration, or would the style then need to
use a combination of environments instead?

I;m fighting a cold today, so synapses not firing correctly. But as a
general principle, one can override formatting attributes.

Bruce