Notes

Interface

Good way to set parameters?

1. Argument calls
   • set list of wanted fields (if None, all are wanted)
   • Set list of unwanted fields (optional)
2. Config files
   • allows for templates
   • More complex to set up
3. Prompts during processing, asking for user decisions
   • Could also be used to auto-generate config files

External information files

LaTeX style files

• .bst: BibTex format file (difficult to parse)
• .sty: LaTeX style file (can this contain the bst info?)
• .cls: LaTeX class file (can this contain the bst info?)

LaTeX temp files

• .aux: Lists citations and labels
  • Single line to parse: \citation{citationlabel}

BibTexNanny files

• Dictionary of conference names
• Style config file
• Tool config files
  • Consistency checker config file
  • Fixer config file
  • Simplifier config file

BibTex field requirements

We need to be able to check the following aspects for fields:

• What type of entry are we looking at?
• What are the generally required and optional fields for this entry?
  • This bit can be hardcoded as it is always true for all BibTex files
  • Look up BibTex documentation to determine these values
• For a particular bibliography type, which are the required and optional fields, which fields are ignored?
  • Easy solution: Manually create a config file that lists fields as mandatory, optional and ignored
    • Requires config file design
  • Better solution: Load style files to automatically extract this kind of information.
    • Are there python tools that can load sty and cls files for us?
• Design a config file that allows users to set which info they want to drop and which they need enforced
  • List by entry type
    • Allow defining fields for more than one entry type at once
  • Define fields as mandatory, optional, unused and maybe as hidden
• Three layer approach:
  1. In-built BibTex entry definitions
  2. Config file for bibliography style requirements
  3. Config file for simplification requirements