Re: Some BibTeX questions

[Taco Hoekwater <taco@elvenkind.com>]

Jeff Smith wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> A couple of questions regarding BibTeX and ConTeXt. :-)
> 
> 1) For various reasons I want to make my own .bbl file. Do I
> understand correctly that I therefore don't need to use \setupbibtex
> in my document? 

Correct. Don't use \setupbibtex in that case, because it will trigger
bibtex runs and those will likely destroy your handcrafted bbl.

> 
> 2) In an automatically generated .bbl file, the \setuppublicationlist
> command seems to have as a value for the samplesize parameter the very
> first s-key of the list, .i.e that of the first publication in the
> database. 

In some styles, the "s" (=short) key is used for both referencing
and labelling in the list of publications. The "samplesize" decides
how much space on the left should be reserved for the labels in that
style. It will make the publication list look like this:

   [Ach75] Random musings about greenery. Achinaeus Julius, Emperial
           Elite press, Rome, 75 BCE.
   [...]   Etc. etc.

And cites will be like

   As can be read in [Ach75], ...

> 3)  Are the brackets absolutely necessary? With more than one
> name, perhaps?

Whenever there are embedded commas or square brackets in the keys,
just like in the rest of context. Bibtex is paranoid and inserts
many extra braces, just in case.

Best wishes,
Taco


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