ebib-users

[Ebib-users] how to edit the key?

[Mandar M. <man...@gm...>]

Hi,

Recently discovered ebib, and it looks great! Since I'm a new user, I'm
still using a mix of ebib and editing the raw bib file. I'm wondering if
there's any way to edit the key itself via ebib. A quick look in the
manual didn't yield anything.

This leads me to the next question. Suppose I change the key (or make
some other edit) directly in the .bib file. Can I get ebib to reload 
the data without quitting and restarting?

Thanks,
mandar.

Re: [Ebib-users] how to edit the key?

[Joost K. <joo...@fa...>]

Hi Mandar,

On Fri, Aug 31 2012, Mandar Mitra <man...@gm...> wrote:
> Recently discovered ebib, and it looks great!

Thanks. :-)

> Since I'm a new user, I'm
> still using a mix of ebib and editing the raw bib file. I'm wondering if
> there's any way to edit the key itself via ebib. A quick look in the
> manual didn't yield anything.

`E' does this. I'm not sure if it's mentioned anywhere in the manual,
though, except in the list of available keys.

> This leads me to the next question. Suppose I change the key (or make
> some other edit) directly in the .bib file. Can I get ebib to reload 
> the data without quitting and restarting?

There's no automatic way. Quitting and restarting should be the quickest
way if you've set ebib-preload-bib-files, otherwise you can close the
database with `c' and open it again with `o'. You'll have to specify the
full path then, though, so that's not necessarily quicker.

Might be a good idea though, to add some way to reload a .bib file...

HTH

Joost


-- 
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments

Re: [Ebib-users] how to edit the key?

[Mandar M. <man...@gm...>]

Hi Joost,

> `E' does this. I'm not sure if it's mentioned anywhere in the manual,
> though, except in the list of available keys.

Indeed it is. I should have looked more carefully. Section "Editing the
Database", subsection "Adding and Deleting Entries", para 3.


> There's no automatic way. Quitting and restarting should be the quickest
> way if you've set ebib-preload-bib-files, otherwise you can close the
> database with `c' and open it again with `o'. You'll have to specify the
> full path then, though, so that's not necessarily quicker.
> 
> Might be a good idea though, to add some way to reload a .bib file...

One use case where this might be useful is if I'm working with a
collaborator on a paper, and the files are shared (e.g. through
Dropbox). If a co-author changes a bib file, it would be nice to
be able to reload quickly. For ordinary tex files, emacs prompts me
whether I should revert-buffer. Something similar for ebib...

If I can put something quick and dirty together, will circulate for
feedback.

Looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with ebib :),
mandar.

Re: [Ebib-users] how to edit the key?

[Robbie M. <ro...@ac...>]

Hi Mandar, Joost, and all

------------------------------------------------------------
To:          "Discussion of issues relating to Ebib."
<ebi...@li...>
Subject:      Re: [Ebib-users] how to edit the key?
Message-ID:  <201...@gm...>
From:         Mandar Mitra <man...@gm...>
Date:         Sat, 1 Sep 2012 15:56:13 +0530
------------------------------------------------------------

> If I can put something quick and dirty
> together, will circulate for feedback.

Would having two 'git' branches help here: master
and dev (or development or alpha or unstable).

> Looking forward to a long and fruitful
> relationship with ebib :),

I am also interested in contributing.  I've used
many reference management systems over the years:
custom FoxPro, custom Access, EndNote,
bibtex-mode, bibtool, custom Awk (really!).  And
I find 'ebib' offers a nice mix of simplicity,
usability, and extensibility.  Full marks to
Joost.

Robbie
---
Robbie Morrison
PhD student -- policy-oriented energy system simulation
Technical University of Berlin (TU-Berlin), Germany
University email (redirected) : mor...@ie...
Webmail (preferred)           : ro...@ac...
[from Webmail client]

Re: [Ebib-users] how to edit the key?

[Joost K. <joo...@fa...>]

Mandar Mitra <man...@gm...> writes:
> One use case where this might be useful is if I'm working with a
> collaborator on a paper, and the files are shared (e.g. through
> Dropbox). If a co-author changes a bib file, it would be nice to
> be able to reload quickly. For ordinary tex files, emacs prompts me
> whether I should revert-buffer. Something similar for ebib...

Ah, that already goes a step further. ;-) Not just the ability to reload
the file, but also a warning when it has changed...

Reloading the file is easy to implement, that's just another command.

Checking for a file change would require keeping track of the file's
state when it's opened, or at least the time when it's opened and then
comparing that with the latest modification time when the user edits the
file.

It's doable, of course, but I'd have to think about the best way to
implement it. Actually, it would be very easy if Ebib would just load
the .bib file in a buffer and operate on that. Then Emacs would keep
track of changes. The thing is that Ebib doesn't do that... It opens the
.bib file, reads its contents and stores in in a hash table, and then
closes the buffer again.

> If I can put something quick and dirty together, will circulate for
> feedback.

If you come up with something, please share. :-)

Best,

Joost


-- 
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments

Re: [Ebib-users] how to edit the key?

[Robbie M. <ro...@ac...>]

Hello Joost, Mandar

------------------------------------------------------------
To:          "Discussion of issues relating to Ebib."
<ebi...@li...>
Subject:      Re: [Ebib-users] how to edit the key?
Message-ID:  <87t...@fa...>
From:         Joost Kremers <joo...@fa...>
Date:         Sun, 02 Sep 2012 00:36:11 +0200
------------------------------------------------------------

> Ah, that already goes a step further. ;-) Not just
> the ability to reload the file, but also a warning
> when it has changed...
>
> Reloading the file is easy to implement, that's just
> another command.
>
> Checking for a file change would require keeping
> track of the file's state when it's opened, or at
> least the time when it's opened and then comparing
> that with the latest modification time when the user
> edits the file.

The reload command should report whether any databases
have changed or not.  That would be useful to know and
easy to compute.  It should also warn if recent user
edits will be overwritten and seek confirmation to
proceed.

---

The code to track the underlying BibTeX files is much
more complicated.  It will need:

  * to be multi-platform
  * deal with simultaneous editing and with conflicts
  * run periodically, say every minute

Even if 'ebib' offered this functionality, your
colleagues could well be editing BibTeX files with
straight text editors ('nano' or Notepad) without this
oversight.  How will they cope with your changes?

An alternative approach would be to put your common
BibTeX files under 'git' or some other revision control
system and let the RCS handle all this.  That is
exactly what they are designed to do, whether
client-server or distributed.

My instinct is that tracking should *not* be added for
the reason that it is difficult to create a
sufficiently robust solution -- moreover false promises
will only lead to confusion when not honored.

Furthermore, one of the appeals of 'ebib' is that it is
lean at only 4k source lines.

---

At the very least, a few paragraphs on how this feature
is to work and in what use-cases should be penned
before the hacking begins.

my initial thoughts but I think you get the drift,
cheers Robbie
---
Robbie Morrison
PhD student -- policy-oriented energy system simulation
Institute for Energy Engineering (IET)
Technical University of Berlin (TU-Berlin), Germany
University email (redirected) : mor...@ie...
Webmail (preferred)           : ro...@ac...
[from Webmail client]

Re: [Ebib-users] how to edit the key?

[Joost K. <joo...@fa...>]

Robbie Morrison <ro...@ac...> writes:
> Would having two 'git' branches help here: master
> and dev (or development or alpha or unstable).

Actually, with git, branching is cheap and easy. So the "normal" thing
to do is to just set up a new branch, work on whatever feature one wants
to implement, test it, and if it's finished, merge it into master.

BTW, with git, the usual way to contribute code is to clone the repo,
set up a new topic branch, make the change/addition, and then send the
maintainer a pull request. S/he can then pull in your topic branch and
examine the code.

Github makes this process a bit easier even, because you can simply fork
someone else's repository and create new branches in the forked repo.
And when you're ready to send a pull request, you just click a button on
the website.

If you have a github account, that would be my preferred way of
collaboration. Otherwise, you can send your patches to me, of course. :-)

J.


-- 
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments