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BibTeX /
Background
<< Introduction to using BibTeX/LyX | Page list | Programs for working with and converting BibTeX-files >>
Background of BibTeX and some citation stylesThe difference between "normal" BibTeX, Natbib, Jurabib et al.BibTeXBibtex is a compiler program that does the job of writing a bibliography
environment for you, reading citation entries from a database ( Bibtex has been designed mostly for natural scientist's citation uses (i.e.
numerical), but its author, Oren Patashnik, already provided a rudimentary
extension package for author-year citations (that is NatbibPatrick W. Daly felt that this was not powerful enough and developed another extension package: natbib. It comes with its own style files, but in the meantime, several people have designed alternative style files for natbib. Also, Daly has developed "custom-bib", an interactive command line tool which lets you create a style file interactively (by answering some questions). JurabibJens Berger finally came to the conclusion that all the existing packages (including natbib) do not match the requirements of law studies. So he developed the jurabib package, another extension. The difference in concept is that you don't have lots of different static bst files, but only a few bst files which can be very much tweaked via package options and commands. During the years, jurabib has become very popular and extremely flexible, and it is particularly popular amongst LyX users from the human sciencies. However, on 19/04/2007, Jens Berger announced that he will not develop the package any longer. So unless a new maintainer steps up, jurabib's future is open to question. Jens Berger himself recommends to use another brandnew package, namely BiblatexBiblatex is the new kid on the block, developped by Philipp Lehman. It follows a completely new approach insofar as biblatex uses bibtex only as a sorting tool and reimplements everything else on the LaTeX side. That means that you don't have to deal with the (rather crude) language of the bst files, since the design of the bibliographies and citations is completely controlled by LaTeX macros. Biblatex hereby overcomes several limitations of BibTeX, and it is much easier to use, at least if you are familiar with LaTeX. Furthermore, it is already at least as powerful as jurabib (and natbib anyway), providing things like citation filtering, sectionated bibliographies, chapter bibliographies, full cites, ibidem, gender differentiation, localization etc. However, even if it's working rather well, biblatex is still in an early stage of development, and Lehman himself doesn't recommend it for daily use yet, since some internals are still subject to change (although as of version 0.7, the biblatex interface has been declared "stable"). Due to this and due to the different approach, biblatex is not (yet) supported natively by LyX, although it is possible to use it. For instructions on how to use Biblatex in LyX check this site. ConclusionWhich of those packages you chose depends on your needs and personal preferences. Note that all those extension packages need their own bst files, even if some of them might be inter-chargeable. Documentation for those stylesThe natbib documentation: http://www.mps.mpg.de/software/latex/localtex/doc/natbib.pdf The jurabib documentation: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/jurabib/docs/english/jbendoc.pdf The biblatex documentation: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/exptl/biblatex/doc/biblatex.pdf And this comprehensive documentation about BibTeX: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/bibtex/tamethebeast/ttb_en.pdf A quick and easy introduction to BibTeX and an online converter: http://www.bibtex.org (Taken from a post in the user's list by Jürgen Spitzmüller, see LyxUsersPost:22044) |