It may also be relevant to mention a related feature of SBL style:
(3) The "et al." string is used for more than three authors for in-text
citations, but all authors are listed in full in the list of publications.

In publ-imp-chicago.mkvi (probably the most similar style to SBL), the
etallimit and etaldisplay parameters are set to the default values:

\definebtx
  [chicago:\s!list]
  [chicago]
 %[\c!otherstext={\btxcomma\btxnobreakspace\textellipsis\space},
 % \c!etallimit=7,
 % \c!etaldisplay=6,
 % \c!etaloption=last,
  [\c!authorconversion=inverted]

But the definition for in-text citations sets both of these parameters to 1:

\definebtx
  [chicago:\s!cite]
  [chicago]
  [\c!alternative=authoryear,
   \c!otherstext={\btxcomma\btxlabeltext{others}},
   \c!etallimit=1,
   \c!etaldisplay=1,
   \c!authorconversion=\v!name,
   \c!sorttype=normal, % \v!normal ?
   \c!style=,
   \c!compress=\v!yes] % note that cite sorts only work with compress=yes.

Now, if I cite a source in-text using the "author" alternative, this rule
is applied, but if I cite a source in-text using the "entry" alternative,
the printed citation follows the rules for [chicago:\s!list], even though
the citation style for the "entry" alternative is explicitly defined to
inherit from [chicago:\s!cite]:

\definebtx
  [chicago:\s!cite:entry]
  [chicago:\s!cite]
  [\c!left=,
   \c!right=,
   \c!inbetween={\btxspace},
   \c!separator:2={\btxsemicolon},
   \c!separator:3=\btxparameter{\c!separator:2},
   \c!separator:4=\btxparameter{\c!separator:2}]

Is the "entry" alternative just hardcoded to match the list citation, or am
I missing something?

Joey

On Tue, Aug 10, 2021 at 2:12 PM Joey McCollum <jmccollum20140511@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm currently working on implementing a new citation rendering for SBL
> style. One of the challenges of this style is that it specifies slightly
> different rules for citations in the text (which are generally expected to
> look like citations made with the "entry" alternative) and entries in the
> final list of publications. The two most common differences are
> (1) Authors in the in-text citation are printed in normal form (i.e.,
> first name followed by last name), while authors in the list citation are
> printed in inverted for for the first author and normal form for all
> subsequent authors.
> (2) Most fields in the in-text citation are separated by commas, while the
> list citation uses periods in these places.
>
> Is there already a mechanism for handling this for another citation style?
> And if not, could anyone offer a suggestion on how I might go about
> implementing separate rules for in-text citations and list citations?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Joey
>