[OS X TeX] BibTeX Questions.

[Simon Spiegel]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


On 09.01.2005, at 23:52, Stephan Hochhaus wrote:

>
> Am 09.01.2005 um 17:54 schrieb Adam R. Maxwell:
>
>> Okay, to satisfy my curiosity, how should BibDesk handle required 
>> fields?  I'm so used to BD that JabRef is hard to use, but there's 
>> always room for improvement.
> BibDesk does a great job at making data entry simple and 
> straightforward. However, a newbie will most likely not know which 
> fields are required and which are optional with bibtex or a certain 
> bst style. BibDesk highlights the names of fields that are mandatory 
> in red, but I came across some issues when changing the entry type a 
> couple of times and the updating of the required fields indicator in 
> former versions (I don't think this is an issue with the latest 
> version anymore).
> The one thing where JabRef semi-"shines" in data entry is when it 
> comes to the identification of the mandatory fields. There are some 
> tabs that will only show you "required fields", "optional fields" and 
> "general fields". This is very helpful when you're starting your 
> journey through BibTeX but it somewhat slows you down when you already 
> know what you are doing. So I think JabRef makes the learning phase a 
> bit easier but later on it rather slows you down.

Actually, I think this is very annoying. When I started using 
LaTeX/BibTeX I went with jurabib right from the beginning. Now jurabib 
has lots of special fields which other styles don't use but which make 
it very powerful. Any decision by the app what fields are required or 
optional is pretty pointless IMO when you use jurabib (I don't know 
about other styles).

>
> If you realy wanted to improve BibDesk in regards of required fields 
> then it would be great if there were three colors: red for required 
> fields, green for optional fields and maybe black for the rest. And 
> sometimes a bst does not require a certain field in my setup, so it 
> would be really nice if that indicator could be based on different 
> bibtex packages like natbib or jurabib. But that is nothing I really 
> need, so far I have always been able to get along just fine (which is 
> why I wrote I am hooked on BibDesk).
>
> Stephan
>
> --------------------- Info ---------------------
> Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
>           & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
> TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
> List Post: <mailto:MacOSX-TeX at email.esm.psu.edu>
>
>
>
- --
Simon Spiegel
Mutschellenstr. 97
8038 Zürich

Telephon: ++41 43 535 81 71
Mobophon: ++41 76 459 60 39

http://www.simifilm.ch
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (Darwin)

iD8DBQFB4biUI+bknClY7b8RArq6AJ44MwHb9quUs37QAQ1rpPKdFcEhlACfbr+q
vVKjtWYSWJ2qEMzuIjmWb7c=
=ze6C
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--------------------- Info ---------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
           & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Post: <mailto:MacOSX-TeX at email.esm.psu.edu>