Re: latex bibliographies with multiple databases

Hi Markus,

Markus Hoenicka wrote:
> 1) BibTeX input
> [W]e can import bibtex data as plain Unicode.
>
> 2) RIS input
> All it takes is to set the default input
> encoding of refdbd for RIS data to UTF-8.
>
> 3) risx input
> [N]o extra conversion step is required to get rid of
> entities and to store plain Unicode.

All looks too easy so far.
> 4) SGML/XML output (bibliographies, db31/tei/html backends)
> "<>&" are replaced with their corresponding entities. In addition, the
> current code contains replacements for &mdash; &lsquo; and &rsquo;. I
> know that I was asked to add these, but I can't remember the
> context. I wonder whether it would make more sense to keep these
> characters as Unicode.
>   

I fear I may have partly the cause.  I was using refdb purely for 
docbook and since I didn't use UTF-8 encoding for my references the only 
way to preserve characters like em dash was to protect them as entities 
throughout the reference's life cycle.  They were not only protected 
during output, as you mention above, but were protected at input also.  
In moving to a more sensible unicode-based system, however, it no longer 
makes any sense to replace those characters with entities.
> 5) LaTeX output
> There are currently no attempts to escape LaTeX command
> characters. I'm about to add this code.
>   

I see this code arrived today.
> 6) other output (RIS, screen)
> No replacements. If you retrieve data as UTF-8, you'll get what you want.
>
>
> One thing that should be discussed is how easy it is for RefDB users
> to author UTF-8 data, be it RIS, bibtex, or XML. Is there [Unicode input] support
> available for other editors (vim, jedit) which should be mentioned in
> the manual?
>   

Many unicode characters (and certainly all the commonly used ones) are 
entered by means of digraphs (using two or more keystrokes to specify 
one character).  The mnemonics for these are fairly intuitive, like 'a:' 
for a-umlaut.  Any unicode character can be entered with 'Ctrl-v uxxxx' 
where 'xxxx' is the character code.
Regards,
David.

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