From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Richard Lawrence Subject: Re: [OT] Don't use BibTeX! Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 18:39:30 -0700 Message-ID: <87txa5j4tp.fsf@berkeley.edu> References: <1396673952.81320.YahooMailBasic@web141706.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> <87y4zk5cd0.fsf@ucl.ac.uk> <87ob0fk9lc.fsf@berkeley.edu> <20140405213324.5e88c2fa@aga-netbook> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:41401) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WWyYs-00030S-1k for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 06 Apr 2014 21:41:26 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WWyYn-00056C-Br for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 06 Apr 2014 21:41:21 -0400 Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:59044) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WWyYn-000566-4o for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 06 Apr 2014 21:41:17 -0400 Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1WWyYl-0003WG-JZ for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Apr 2014 03:41:15 +0200 Received: from c-67-164-45-159.hsd1.ca.comcast.net ([67.164.45.159]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 07 Apr 2014 03:41:15 +0200 Received: from richard.lawrence by c-67-164-45-159.hsd1.ca.comcast.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 07 Apr 2014 03:41:15 +0200 List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Cc: Marcin Borkowski Marcin Borkowski writes: > Dnia 2014-04-05, o godz. 09:46:39 > Richard Lawrence napisał(a): > >> I have sometimes run into problems (mostly with BibTeX) when the > > Sorry for being off-topic, but I can't resist: *please* *don't* *use* > *BibTeX*. On the scale of "tools that solve problems" vs. "tools that > create problems" (cf. http://xkcd.com/1343/ ;)), it is located on the > far right. Now now, the first sentence on http://www.bibtex.org/Using/ says that to use Bibtex, "Just create a plain text file and apply what has been explained in section BibTeX File Format."! It doesn't say anything about how to use the manual. ;) > (For instance, to be able to customize its bibliography style, you > could (a) give up, (b) use some user-friendly (or not) front-end, > having less power than BibTeX itself (obviously!), or (c) learn > BibTeX's own, very peculiar, stack-based ad-hoc language grown to > describe bibliography styles. Not good. Also, if you're unlucky and > you write in some non-English language, well, you're unlucky with > BibTeX, especially if e.g. your name starts with a non-Latin letter. > Etc.) I mostly use bibtex because that's what I learned, and none of these issues apply to me at this (early) stage in my career. I have no need for customizing my bibliography style. I suppose this will matter more to me when I start sending things out for publication, but at this point I'm still just trying to write the damn dissertation... > Use biblatex instead. It's more modern, it's being supported, it > knowns that there exist things like UTF-8 and non-English languages, > it supports more citation styles etc. I have heard this, but haven't investigated biblatex because I haven't yet really felt the need. I keep my reading list and notes in Org, then export them to a .bib file using org-bibtex. Does biblatex support .bib files? If not, what would be required to support a biblatex-based workflow in Org? Thanks for keeping me honest! Best, Richard