Re: org-ref & helm-bibtex notes

[Titus von der Malsburg <malsburg@posteo.de>]

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On 2015-06-16 Tue 18:28, Titus von der Malsburg wrote:
> On 2015-06-16 Tue 17:39, Julian Burgos wrote:
>> Dear list,
>>
>> I have been using org-ref for a while, using reftex to insert citations in
>> my org documents.  Now I am switching to helm-bibtex, which is pretty
>> awesome.  I have a couple of question about the note files.  Org-ref uses
>> a single file to keep notes (e.g. notes.org), but helm-bibtex assumes that
>> notes are kept in separate files, one per article.  My questions are:
>>
>> a) Do you have a preference in the single file vs multiple files question?
>>  Are advantages/disadvantages?  I tend to prefer the single file option,
>> it makes search easy and also I can add TODO items that later I can pull
>> out in the agenda view.  With multiple files this would not be as easy. 
>> Do you agree?
>
> Hi, I’m the author of helm-bibtex.  There was recently a discussion about
> this on Github:
>
>   https://github.com/tmalsburg/helm-bibtex/issues/40
>
> Someone convinced me that storing all notes in one file is better and
> there is an experimental (and incomplete) implementation in a topic
> branch:
>
>   https://github.com/tmalsburg/helm-bibtex/tree/note-files

Update: I worked on the note-files branch and as far as I’m concerned it
is ready to be merged into master.  There are several changes:

When one big notes file is used:

- The new default template for notes is simpler than what org-ref uses
  but it should be compatible because it uses the Custom_ID property to
  store the key.
- Note templates can be defined in `helm-bibtex-notes-template`.
- The list of publications now shows a mark if notes are available for a
  publication.
- Finding the correct entry is now robust because the code looks for
  `Custom_ID: key` not just for the key.

Multiple note files (one for each publication):

- The template for notes is used to populate new note
  files.  (Previously it was only used in the case with one big notes
  file.)

Julian, if you could test this branch, that would be fantastic!

Here is the code:

  https://github.com/tmalsburg/helm-bibtex/tree/note-files

Titus

>
> (Multiple note files will still be possible for users who prefer that.)
>
>> b) Helm-bibtex identifies which references have a note file, adding a
>> symbol on the reference list.  Can we make helm-bibtex look into a single
>> file (say the "notes.org" file), look for the :Custom_ID: properties of
>> the entries, and use that to mark the reference list?  I am teaching
>> myself emacs-lisp but this is above my capacity right now.
>
> Yes, something like that needs to be included.  The unresolved question
> is how BibTeX keys should be stored in the notes file.  I find property
> drawers incredibly clunky and in my experience they can considerably
> slow down Emacs in large org files (that’s the reason why I don’t use
> org-contacts as much as a would like).
>
> My current favorite format for entries in the notes file is the
> following:
>
>   * Author: Title (year)                       :BibTeXkey:
>   Here are the notes …
>
> The only problem I see with this is that BibTeX allows keys to contain
> colons, and a key with a colon would break org’s tag syntax.
>
> Suggestions welcome.
>
>   Titus
>
>
>>
>> Many thanks,
>>
>> Julian


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