Re: [Refdb-devel] latex bibliographies with multiple databases

[David N. <dav...@sw...>]

Hi Markus,

> In order to
> support multiple databases I had to revert this to the original format where
> the citation key is prefixed with "ID" or "dbname-ID".
>
> I'm open for suggestions if you know a better way to safely distinguish database
> names from the citation key proper.
>   

I'm afraid the current scheme is unusable.  It is possible for citation 
keys to contains hyphens -- in fact, the default key for a hyphenated 
author surname contains a hyphen.  Try using a hyphenated citation key 
and watch the fun.  Even better, combine a database name with the 
hyphenated citation key -- that introduces another hyphen.  Even more fun.

refdb allows you to create databases whose names contain hyphens.  I 
haven't tried including a hyphenated database with a hyphenated citation 
key in the one citation -- I'm too scared.  Interestingly, while I can 
create a database with a hyphenated name I can't delete it (at least 
with an sqlite backend) -- the deletedb operation fails.

IIRC, it is illegal to include colons in citation keys.  I seem to 
recall they are automatically stripped out.  It is currently possible to 
include hyphens in database names.  But, if you made it illegal to 
include a hyphen in a database name that gives you a ready-made 
delimiter to use in citations.

Regards,
David.