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Re: [O] [OT] Don't use BibTeX!
From: |
Richard Lawrence |
Subject: |
Re: [O] [OT] Don't use BibTeX! |
Date: |
Sun, 06 Apr 2014 18:39:30 -0700 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.4 (gnu/linux) |
Marcin Borkowski <address@hidden> writes:
> Dnia 2014-04-05, o godz. 09:46:39
> Richard Lawrence <address@hidden> napisaĆ(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
- [O] Images not showing up in PDF output, Mark S., 2014/04/05
- Re: [O] Images not showing up in PDF output, Eric S Fraga, 2014/04/05
- Re: [O] Images not showing up in PDF output, Richard Lawrence, 2014/04/05
- [O] [OT] Don't use BibTeX! (was: Images not showing up in PDF output), Marcin Borkowski, 2014/04/05
- Re: [O] [OT] Don't use BibTeX!,
Richard Lawrence <=
- Re: [O] [OT] Don't use BibTeX!, Thomas S. Dye, 2014/04/06
- [O] Biblatex and Org [was: [OT] Don't use BibTeX!], Richard Lawrence, 2014/04/06
- Re: [O] Biblatex and Org [was: [OT] Don't use BibTeX!], Thomas S. Dye, 2014/04/07
- Re: [O] Biblatex and Org, Richard Lawrence, 2014/04/07
- Re: [O] Images not showing up in PDF output, Mark S., 2014/04/06