Re: exporting zotxt or orgref links to HTML and ODF

[John Kitchin <johnrkitchin@gmail.com>]

I have not found the link syntax too constraining. Simple links like the
ones I use in org-ref are perfect for simple citation needs. It handles
all different kinds of citations (cite, citet, textcite,...) and
multiple citations. org-ref automates selection of keys and insertion
via reftex or helm. They are all we need for the kind of scientific
publication my group does. We have published six peer-reviewed
publications so far with just these simple links. I do concede that if
you use many "non-simple: features of biblatex, you are heading for
trouble with links. You can probably just use raw LaTeX then.

[[textcite:KEY]] is not required unless KEY has some particular
characters like spaces or other link-breaking characters. textcite:KEY
works just fine for me.

I do agree that \textcite[pre][post]{KEY} is trickier and uglier to
solve. I have only found this approach

[[textcite:KEY][pre text::post text]]

to work particularly well, and you have to parse the description in the
export. I use :: as the divider, since it seems unlikely to be in either
element. It takes a little more thought to automate insertion of these,
but the link insertion machinery of org-mode will do it in org-ref.  If
you use descriptive links in org-mode, it collapses into just the
description, which I don't like but live with. The newest org-ref has a
minibuffer message feature that should show you a summary of the
citation when your cursor is idle on that link though.

I don't want to start a war over links vs dedicated element for
citations. I just want to point out that links work really well for a
large set of use cases, and other solutions are not likely to be as
simple to use. My thoughts are biased of course since I have invested a
lot of time and thought into org-ref, and I don't see the limitations you
suggest in our daily work.

If you send me some examples of what is not easy, maybe we can see if
org-ref can do it.

Rasmus writes:

> Matt Price <moptop99@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 8:30 AM, Rasmus <rasmus@gmx.us> wrote:
>>> #+begin_rant
>>>
>>> The current state is a mess and not portable.  E.g. there's at least two
>>> Zotero projects, there's John Kitchin's code, there's ox-bibtex.el (which
>>> IMO is not suitable for complicated citation requirements), plus everyone
>>> and their mother's have got custom citation links in their config via
>>> custom org link types...
>>>
>>> /Proper/ citation support (not links) is, IMO, the last thing that is
>>> missing for good academic publishing support.
>>>
>>> #+end_rant
>>
>> (I know about zotxt -- is there another zotero project?)
>
> This is the other one I had in mind:
>
>       https://github.com/vspinu/zotelo
>
>> (b) I could start to recommend it to colleagues, as I'm itching to do.
>
> But the argument "it's easier/cleaner" seems to shatter when you get to
> [[textcite:KEY]] compared to \textcite{KEY}...  Even worse when you have
> to have notes, e.g. \textcite[pre][post]{KEY}.
>
> —Rasmus

--
Professor John Kitchin
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@johnkitchin
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