On 5 Aug 2011, at 09:39, Simon Spiegel wrote: > > On 05.08.2011, at 17:33, Maxwell, Adam R wrote: > >> On Aug 5, 2011, at 07:37, Simon Spiegel wrote: >> >>> On 05.08.2011, at 16:26, Adam R. Maxwell wrote: >>> >>>> Unless you're a TeXpert, those look worse than .bst files. >>> >>> Well, no, for two reasons: >>> >>> - Biblatex is extensively documented (contrary to the .bst format). >>> Actually, I'd say that biblatex's excellent documentation is one of its >>> majors strengths. >> >> The bst language is documented in btxhax.pdf and btxbst.doc. Granted, it's >> shorter than the 215 pages of biblatex.pdf, but that's not necessarily bad... >> >>> - Understanding how the styles work and what do you have to change is >>> actually doable with average LaTeX skills (contrary to the .bst format. The >>> .bst is very obscure and it's logic has absolutely nothing to do with >>> LaTeX). >> >> I guess that depends on your idea of "average" LaTeX skills; I've written >> and modified document classes, so I'm not an absolute newbie, but the >> apa.bbx file I looked at is less comprehensible to me than a .bst file. > > Well, for one thing APA is one of the more complex styles. So I'm not > surprised that its implementation isn't trivial. Second biblatex-apa is not > one of the default biblatex styles, so contrary to the default biblatex > styles it's not primarily meant to be altered. If you start with your own > biblatex style it's probably not a good idea to start with biblatex-apa > (except you only need small alterations). > >> I can believe that biblatex makes more things possible, but I think the >> argument that it's simpler or easier is completely misguided. > > I dare to say that I'm not the only who strongly disagrees.
--- my $0.02 --- Over the years, I've seen many comments to the effect that bibtex is terribly difficult to learn, so I didn't bother. About a year ago, I was motivated to make a small change to my bibliography style. Was it trivial? No. But it was also not so difficult as I had been led to believe. It required reading up on bibtex (less than a dozen pages), doing some experiments, and thinking carefully. This is well within the capabilities of the motivated PhD student who doesn't have a deadline looming next week. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BlackBerry® DevCon Americas, Oct. 18-20, San Francisco, CA The must-attend event for mobile developers. Connect with experts. Get tools for creating Super Apps. See the latest technologies. Sessions, hands-on labs, demos & much more. Register early & save! http://p.sf.net/sfu/rim-blackberry-1 _______________________________________________ Bibdesk-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bibdesk-users
