Re: converting BibTeX entries to Lout?

[David Middleton]

> > Is there currently any support for making use of BibTeX databases in
> > Lout? I have several files of bib entries in BibTeX format that I must
> > convert over to Lout format.
> 
> Hmm, write a perl script that takes BibTeX (and/or troff's refer
> format) as its input and spits Lout @Reference symbols on its output.

I have a couple of conversion scripts that use awk.  They're hacks of
bibtex2refer by Doug Arnold (address@hidden) that I put together
over a year ago and havn't touched since.

They worked for my purposes at the time.  They make no claim at being
complete, fault tolerant etc.  If anyone wants them I've just put them 
at:

        http://turtle.gis.umn.edu/people/dajm/lout/

> Distribute it under GPL :-)

I suspect these are really PD.  Hopefully if someone is inspired to make
something really useful they will GPL it :-)

I've also put there some scripts I use to abbreviate/unabbreviate the
journal names in some ld files.  Again hacks that make no pretence at
being the best way to do this, just happened to be the quickest/easiest
way for me at the time.

I need this as scientific journals have a wide variety of different reference
styles.  Changing refstyles can cope with a lot, but often it seems best
to make changes to the actual references database.

Currently my feeling i that a lot of reference management is best handled
by a bibtex based tool (eg the X based "bibcard") then using scripts to
convert to lout format.  Obviously some scope for automation here.  What
do others do?

David Middleton
Dept. Fisheries & Wildlife              http://turtle.gis.umn.edu/people/dajm/
University of Minnesota                 email:  address@hidden
200 Hodson Hall, 1980 Folwell Ave,      tel:    US + 612 625 8178
St. Paul, MN 55108, USA                 fax:    US + 612 625 5299