[Ebib-users] Ebib 1.0.0 released

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

Hi list,

I've just uploaded a new Ebib version to the Sourceforge servers. This
version includes the timestamp functionality requested last week. See the
manual for details:

<http://ebib.sourceforge.net/ebib/Use-Timestamp.html#Use-Timestamp>

The timestamp field is a hidden field, which is not shown by default, but
can be made visible by hitting "H" in the index buffer.

Right now, the timestamp field is the only field that is hidden, but
perhaps in the future other uses for this functionality will come up.

In order to make hidden fields possible, I had to completely rewrite the
code that moves around the field highlight in the entry buffer. No big deal
in itself, but it is new code, so less well tested. On the other hand, the
code is cleaner and more modular than what I had before, so should be less
prone to contain bugs. If you encounter any problems, please let me know,
and I'll see to it that they get fixed ASAP.

Another addition is the key "C" in the index buffer, which puts you in
Ebib's customisation buffer. I got tired of typing `M-x customize RET ebib
RET' all the time. (It took too many TAB-completions to get there. ;-)
Unfortunately, if you leave the customize buffer, you're not put back into
Ebib. I haven't figured out a way to do that yet. (Suggestions welcome.)

Further news on the customisation front: I have removed the macros
defentry, ebib-preload and ebib-additional-fields. I now strongly suggest
that all customisation be done through `M-x customize'. Though technically
it is still possible to set the relevant variables in .ebibrc (or .emacs if
you wish), there's no real need to (except for key bindings: the macro
ebib-key has been retained). If you still use .ebibrc for anything other
than key bindings, the best way to go is to load Ebib 0.28, go to the
customization buffer and do a "Save for future sessions". That'll save all
the customisations to .emacs (or to whatever you've set custom-file
to). Then delete .ebibrc (except the key bindings) and upgrade to the new
version.

I've also fixed a few bugs, as noted in the ChangeLog.

So what's with the version jump? Well, it doesn't signify that this version
is completely different from the previous one. It's just an incremental
update, as usual. But I moved the code into a version control system, GNU
Arch, and I thought that would be a good time to adopt a new version
numbering. From now on, the version number will reflect the kind of
release: for bug fix releases, the third digit will increase. An increase
of the second digit means a feature addition, and if I ever increase the
first digit, I'll have rewritten major parts of the code.

On my TODO list for future versions are the following:

* Make RefTeX be Ebib-aware. This'll be tricky, because I'll need to make
  changes to RefTeX, which isn't my code. This, btw, will always be an
  optional addition: it will always be possible to load Ebib without making
  any changes to the way RefTeX works.

* Implement Guo Wei-Wei's suggestion of creating temporary subset databases
  based on the contents of a particular field.

Joost


-- 
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments