Re: [O] Citation syntax: a revised proposal

[Thomas S. Dye]

Hi Aaron,

Aaron Ecay <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi Thomas,
>
> 2015ko otsailak 25an, "Thomas S. Dye"-ek idatzi zuen:
>> 
>> BibLaTeX has 6 standard "subtypes", which it calls "standard commands".
>> 
>> A citation style can provide any number of specialized commands in
>> addition to the 6 standard commands.
>> 
>> The various citation styles that ship with BibLaTeX together include
>> seven specialized commands, for a total of 13.
>
> I count roughly 50 commands in sections 3.7.1 – 3.7.6 of the biblatex
> user’s manual (version 2.9a of 24/06/2014).  Some of these are quite
> esoteric, of course, but they are all provided.

>> 
>> In this design, the potential explosion in subtypes has been pretty well
>> kept in check.  Does that make the design of BibLaTeX a good model for
>> Org mode?
>
> I don’t know, but I suspect not.  Latex allows users to create powerful
> macros, but has relatively few built-in niceties (some are provided by
> auctex and friends, but that’s separate).  Org’s macro facilities,
> though also powerful, are not well-integrated into its considerable
> interactive features.
>
> By way of illustration, Biblatex (AFAICT) doesn’t provide a possessive
> citation command, which was mentioned by someone in this thread (or its
> predecessor) as a desideratum.  I’d expect a savvy latex user to put in
> their preamble:
>
> \newcommand{\citeposs}[1]{\citeauthor{#1}’s (\citeyear{#1})}
>
> That doesn’t really work in org.  (It could be put together with an org
> macro, but would lose the kind of click-to-view functionality that
> org-ref already provides and which would be ported to the new syntax as
> well.)
>
> Org needs to be smarter about anticipating users’ needs, because it
> doesn’t rely on them to program their own solution using the markup
> language.  And, insofar as all 50+ biblatex commands are actually
> needed, it would be good to see if it’s possible to cut them into more
> digestible chunks.

OK, you folks know this much better than I do.  As an author, I'd much
rather put together a citation style once and remember (or look up) a
funky command name, than try to remember how to construct the style each
time I make a citation.

All the best,
Tom

-- 
Thomas S. Dye
http://www.tsdye.com