summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-biblatex.html
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorKarl Berry <karl@freefriends.org>2009-05-22 23:51:44 +0000
committerKarl Berry <karl@freefriends.org>2009-05-22 23:51:44 +0000
commit566f5207d7e3cafb0633d31277067336ccd9cca7 (patch)
tree7af53e7ac405185168bc1dc38c4e820f442b78d0 /Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-biblatex.html
parentb0beea26ffffd915bb6d9b82f2d65a0a05b7e23b (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')
-rw-r--r--Master/texmf-dist/doc/generic/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-biblatex.html72
1 files changed, 72 insertions, 0 deletions
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&ndash;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 &ldquo;real-world&rdquo; 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&rsquo;s difficult to learn, but since there are
+fewer opportunities to write the language, it&rsquo;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&rsquo;t (yet) appeared.
+<p/>In the absence of BibTeX 1.0, what do we need from the bibliography
+system of the future? &mdash; 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&rsquo;s language feels familiar to the existing user of
+BibTeX, but it&rsquo;s redesigned in an object-oriented style, and looks
+(to a non-user) as if it may well be adequately flexible.
+<p/>CrossTeX&rsquo;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&rsquo;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>&rsquo;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&rsquo;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>