Re: [ANN] org-bibtex.el --- convert between Org headings and bibtex entries

[Christian Moe <mail@christianmoe.com>]

On 4/24/11 4:21 PM, Eric Schulte wrote:
> Matt Lundin<mdl@imapmail.org>  writes:
>> (...)
>> Eric, the more I think about this, the more my vote would be to package
>> this new functionality separately.
>>
>> IMO, hyperlinking to external data in bib files is somewhat orthogonal
>> to storing bib data within org files. In other words, the current
>> org-bibtex.el complements bibtex-mode use, whereas the new org-bibtex
>> functions, for the most part, are substitutes for bibtex-mode---i.e.,
>> they re-implement much of its configuration and basic functionality.
>>
>> By packaging the new functionality separately perhaps we could lay the
>> groundwork for internal, backend agnostic bibliographical export and
>> formatting---not unlike the way in which org-contacts.el replaces bbdb.
>>
>
> Alright, I think I agree that separate packaging would be the best way
> forward given the existing conventions wrt linking to functionality
> rather than implementing said functionality.

The *conclusion* (where Eric Schulte's new bibtex functions should go) 
is not a big concern to me, but FWIW, the *premise* strikes me as 
unnecessarily restrictive.

I submit that, for any non-Org format or application "foo", the module 
org-foo.el does not have to be restricted to providing an Org link 
type for foo. It seems a sensible namespace for e.g. foo-Org/Org-foo 
conversion functions as well. The fact that several modules so named 
*at present* only provide link functionality does not, I think, amount 
to a convention that this is all they should do.

 > By packaging the new functionality separately perhaps we could lay the
 > groundwork for internal, backend agnostic bibliographical export and
 > formatting---not unlike the way in which org-contacts.el replaces bbdb.

That's a great aim. Still, a future bibliography module (be it 
"org-bib", "org-cite" or whatever) could just as well rely, for bits 
of bibtex functionality, on some utilities packaged in org-bibtex.

Yours,
Christian