[Refdb-users] nitpicking (element ordering in risx)

[Markus H. <mar...@mh...>]

Hi Bruce,

Bruce D'Arcus writes:
 > I've been working on some input templates for risx for emacs.  The idea 
 > is to make entering data much easier than it currently is, since ris is 
 > a rather abstract data model.  So, for each variable, the user is 
 > prompted for the input with unambiguous prompts: "book title" and so 
 > forth.
 > 

I am very sympathetic to this approach.

 > I have templates now for chapters and articles, and will do another for 
 > book.  In doing so, however, I'm struck by some somewhat unintuitive 
 > element ordering in the risx DTD.  Below's the instance:
 > 
 > What is odd for me:
 > 
 > 1)  lastname before first
 > 
 > 2)  city before publisher
 > 

What would then be intuitive? It wouldn't be a big deal to change the
order.

 > Anyone out there with lisp experience interested in a menu item to load 
 > these records from the buffer directly into refdb?
 > 

This would be sweet. For the time being, I was thrilled enough to
tinker a little with Emacs, trying to find out whether you could do
the same with built-in functions. A menu (and key bindings) would be
so much better, but right now you can do the following:

Generally it is a good idea to run refdbc inside a shell buffer (M-x
shell). It is best to avoid a pager and send the output to stdout
instead. Whatever you retrieve with e.g. getref is editable text.

If you want to import refdbc output into a new buffer, run something
like:

   M-! refdbc -d dbname -t ris -C getref :ID:=1

Remember that if you run M-! again, you can use the argument history
(up arrow) to walk through the previous calls which saves a lot of
typing.

You may then select a suitable mode (M-x ris-mode or M-x psgml-mode or
whatever you use to edit XML) if you need specific editing support.

In order to send new or updated references from a buffer to refdb, mark
the region (go to start of ref, press Ctrl-space, move cursor to end
of ref). Then run something like:

   M-| refdbc -d dbname -C addref

or

   M-| refdbc -d dbname -C updateref

This will send the marked region as input to the addref or updateref
commands. Use the -t risx switch if you deal with risx data.

Keep in mind that the M-! and M-| commands won't give you a chance to
enter a password. You have to set this in your cofiguration file or
use no password.

regards
Markus

-- 
Markus Hoenicka
mar...@ca...
(Spam-protected email: replace the quadrupeds with "mhoenicka")
http://www.mhoenicka.de