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author | Karl Berry <karl@freefriends.org> | 2009-05-22 23:51:44 +0000 |
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committer | Karl Berry <karl@freefriends.org> | 2009-05-22 23:51:44 +0000 |
commit | 566f5207d7e3cafb0633d31277067336ccd9cca7 (patch) | |
tree | 7af53e7ac405185168bc1dc38c4e820f442b78d0 /Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-biblatex.html | |
parent | b0beea26ffffd915bb6d9b82f2d65a0a05b7e23b (diff) |
move generic english documents out of texmf-doc
git-svn-id: svn://tug.org/texlive/trunk@13396 c570f23f-e606-0410-a88d-b1316a301751
Diffstat (limited to 'Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-biblatex.html')
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diff --git a/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-biblatex.html b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-biblatex.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..055e46b3acb --- /dev/null +++ b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-biblatex.html @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +<head> +<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label biblatex</title> +</head><body> +<h3>Replacing the BibTeX–LaTeX mechanism</h3> +<p/>Producing a successor to BibTeX has long been a favoured activity +among a certain class of TeX-users; the author has seen reports of +progress (on several projects), over the years, but few that claim to +be ready for “real-world” use. +<p/>Few would deny that BibTeX is ripe for renewal: as originally +conceived, it was a program for creating bibliographies for technical +documents, in English. People have contributed mechanisms for a +degree of multilingual use (whose techniques are arcane, and quite +likely inextensible); and specialist BibTeX style files are +available for use in non-technical papers. +<p/>BibTeX uses a style language whose mechanisms are unfamiliar to +most current programmers: it’s difficult to learn, but since there are +fewer opportunities to write the language, it’s also difficult to become +fluent (in the way that so many people fluently write the equally +arcane TeX macro language). +<p/>Oren Patashnik (the author of BibTeX) summarises the issues as he +sees them, in a +<a href="http://tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb24-1/patashnik.pdf">TUG conference paper from 2003</a> +that seems to suggest that we might expect a +BibTeX 1.0...which hasn’t (yet) appeared. +<p/>In the absence of BibTeX 1.0, what do we need from the bibliography +system of the future? — simple: a superset of what BibTeX does +(or can be made to do), implemented in a simpler style language, with +coherent multilingual capabilities. +<p/>Of the direct BibTeX replacements, the only one whose authors have +sufficient confidence to submit to CTAN is CrossTeX. +CrossTeX’s language feels familiar to the existing user of +BibTeX, but it’s redesigned in an object-oriented style, and looks +(to a non-user) as if it may well be adequately flexible. +<p/>CrossTeX’s team respond to queries, and seem well aware of the +need for multilingual support. CrossTeX is probably a development +to watch. +<p/>Two interesting alternative approaches, that the author has +investigated, are <i>amsrefs</i> and <i>biblatex</i>. +<i>Amsrefs</i> does away with BibTeX altogether, while +<i>biblatex</i> makes rather limited use of BibTeX. Both are +heavily dependent on LaTeX’s support. +<p/><i>Amsrefs</i> uses a transformed <code>.bib</code> file, which is +expressed as LaTeX macros. (The package provides a BibTeX style +that performs the transformation, so that a LaTeX source containing +a <code>\</code><code>nocite{*}</code> command enables BibTeX to produce a usable +<i>amsrefs</i> bibliography database.) +<p/><i>Amsrefs</i> is maintained by the AMS as part of its author +support programme, +<p/><i>Biblatex</i> uses BibTeX more-or-less as normal, but with +<i>biblatex</i>’s own style; the style of citations and of the +bibliography itself is determined by the way your <i>biblatex</i> +style has been set up. This structure eliminates the collections of +BibTeX styles, at a stroke; the package comes with a basic set of +styles, and details are determined by options, set at package loading +time. The author, Philipp Lehman, evaluated the whole field of +bibliography software before starting, and as a result the package +comes with answers to many of the questions asked in the bibliography +sections of these FAQs. +<p/><i>Biblatex</i> is released as experimental software, but it’s +clear that many users are already using it happily; Lehman is +responsive to problem reports, at the moment, but a set of expert +users is already establishing itself. +<dl> +<dt><tt><i>amsrefs.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/amsrefs.zip">macros/latex/contrib/amsrefs</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/amsrefs.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/amsrefs/">browse</a>) +<dt><tt><i>biblatex.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/exptl/biblatex.zip">macros/latex/exptl/biblatex</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/exptl/biblatex.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/exptl/biblatex/">browse</a>) +<dt><tt><i>CrossTeX</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/biblio/crosstex/">biblio/crosstex/</a> +</dl> +<p/> +<p/> + +<p/><p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=biblatex">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=biblatex</a> +</body> |