Change Letter type to more generic

[bdarcus]

So I have a memo I need to enter, but the closest Z type is the more specific Letter. When untitled, I get awkward things like "Letter to Doe" in the interface. But, of course, the item really isn't a letter.

Please change to have the base type be more generic, and allow people to enter more specific info (letter, memo, postcard, email, etc.) in the type field.

[dstillman]

The Type field would be used to generate the virtual title? So, "Postcard to Doe"?

Item type "Correspondence"?

[bdarcus]

Makes sense to me; if the free text field isn't present, then you can fall back to "Correspondence with ..." (though that sounds little weird).

Note, though, BIBO does have support for more specific types like Letter as well. If people really needed that, you could always add that (optionally?). One thought to consider farther out is whether in some cases you switch a "type" field from free-text to a pop-up.

[dstillman]

Well, if anything we should start with a pop-up and see if there is demand for other types, no? We can't really go back in the other direction.

Does BIBO have a Type property for a generic correspondence class? Or would we require a custom Zotero property to preserve it?

[bdarcus]

It does have the ​PersonalCommunicationDocument class, with subclasses of EMail and Letter.

As for your suggestion; it's fine with me, except it's probably important to leave room for the "funky" stuff.

[erazlogo]

Letter type was meant to include any analog written communication, such as memos or postcards, or telegrams, hence the Type field to include the type of correspondence. It would be great if Zotero could generate the title from the type field, as "Postcard to..."

It does make sense to change the item type name to something more generic like "Correspondence." But in terms of CSL, right now Chicago require the word "letter" to be omitted in citations of letters, whereas such types as "postcard" or "telegram" need to be included. If we change to "Correspondence" and users start entering "letter" in the type field, one would not be able to omit "letter" footnotes because CSL cannot test the field string before generating the citation (not sure my English is right here but you know what I mean). Any suggestions on how to deal with that in a way that's intuitive for the user?

As far as the type popup, I'm not sure you can predict all possible options here. It's really nice to be able to enter something like "typescript copy of letter" in the type field and have it come up correctly in the citation (in Chicago at least). This will not be possible with a popup.

Note that Zotero does have a type email that also falls under this category. Ideally, the "correspondence" type would include a street/city address for sender and recipient, and the email type would include an email address, so I'd rather not combine the two types (unless there is an easy way to do it in Bibo/new Zotero IU that's intuitive).

[erazlogo]

For the record: these are Chicago rules for letters which require the word "letter" to be omitted:

17.229 Letters and the like

A note citation to a letter starts with the name of the letter writer, followed by to, followed by the name of the recipient. ... The word letter is usually omitted—that is, understood—but other forms of communication (telegram, memorandum) are specified.

I've written about this on the CSL list many times, as well as about adding address to letters.