Newsgroups: comp.archives Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!ox.com!emv From: ogden@nmsu.edu (Bill Ogden) Subject: [tex] New version of BiBCard, an X interface for BiBTeX Message-ID: <1991Feb5.205421.12881@ox.com> Followup-To: comp.text.tex Sender: emv@ox.com (Edward Vielmetti) Reply-To: ogden@nmsu.edu (Bill Ogden) Organization: Computing Research Lab References: Date: Tue, 5 Feb 1991 20:54:21 GMT Approved: emv@ox.com (Edward Vielmetti) X-Original-Newsgroups: comp.text.tex Archive-name: text/bibliography/bibcard/1991-02-04 Archive: crl.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/bibcard.tar.Z [128.123.1.14] Original-posting-by: ogden@nmsu.edu (Bill Ogden) Original-subject: New version of BiBCard, an X interface for BiBTeX Reposted-by: emv@ox.com (Edward Vielmetti) A new version of BiBCard is available by anonymous ftp from: crl.nmsu.edu:pub/misc/bibcard.3.tar.Z [128.123.1.14] New for this release: Support for non-standard BiBTeX fields. Now saves @preamble items. Improved macro handling But now the user must enter a special character to indicate a macro name. Uses load directory as the default directory. Initial default directory is set by an optional $BIBPATH environment variable. Allows .bib suffix for file names Done buttons added to pop-ups to aid X11 users. It is now possible to see all cite keys for large files. Improved scanning of existing files: cite-key can appear on separte line extra spaces before @ and around cite key are now ignored. comma separator can appear at the begining of a line. etc. PhD thesis bug fixed. "BiBCard", is an X based interface for BiBTeX databases. Bibliographic entries can be displayed for each type of reference defined by BiBTeX. Required fields are listed first, followed by the optional fields for that type. Users can select with the mouse the reference type desired. The user interface follows the OpenLook style. Three menu buttons contain most of the command functions: FILE: functions for loading and saving bib files. EDIT: Delete - deletes the currently shown bib entry. Add - adds a new empty bib entry. Undo - reverts any changes to the current entry. VIEW: Next/Previous - for showing sequential bib entries. List - pops up a scrollable list of all cite keys in the database. A mouse click on any key will show that entry. This list can be displayed sorted alphabetically. If it is sorted, only 250 entries will be displayed. Selecting "File Order" will display all entries but this could slow things down a bit. Find - pops up a dialog box for entering a search string for any field. Annotation - shows a window that displays the "annote" field for the current entry. Abbreviation - shows a window that displays the @STRING entries. Users will be able to modify and add new abbreviations, but must have some knowledge of BiBTeX syntax. Other fields - shows a window to enter and display non-standard BiBTeX fields. These are user defined and will be ignored by BiBTeX Entering Macros (string abbreviations): Macros must be entered into the bibcard fields prefixed with a special character. Currently this character is "#". Thus, if you have a string abbreviations like this: @string{ joj = "Journal of Jokes"} you will have to enter: #joj into the bibcard Journal field which will result in the bib file entry: Journal = joj Bibcard will NOT retain the format of existing bib files when re-saved. Be sure to save a back-up of your existing bib files until you are sure bibcard's format suits you. For example, currently, bibcard does not save any non-standard fields. The default directory will be the current working directory unless an optional $BIBPATH envronment variable is set. If help is installed, information about each BiBTeX field is available through the OpenWindow help facility. Bibcard requires the XView 2.0 libraries distributed either by SUN or contained in the X11/R4 contributions. It *should* run under your favorite X window manager. Please send comments and bug reports to ogden@nmsu.edu. -- ogden@nmsu.edu Bill Ogden Computing Research Lab New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM