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What about a bib file

2 messages · Vincent Carey, Martin Maechler

Original
Vincent Carey
# 
Romain Francois suggests that a central bibliographic database
(possibly in bibtex format) might be useful for reference inclusion
in R package man pages.  This has been discussed by a small
group, with one proposal presented for a package-specific bibtex database
placed in a dedicated package subdirectory.  Man page references would
then cite the sources enumerated in the database using their bibtex
tags.  This approach could encourage better annotation and should
confer greater accuracy on package:literature referencing.

This does not rule out a central archive that might include all the
references cited in base man pages.

We are doing some work on harvesting the bibliographic citations
in man pages in an R distribution, and converting them to a regular
format.  The \references section is free form, so the conversion
is not trivial, but progress has been made.

The infrastructure required to use this approach to propagate
(e.g., bibtex-formatted) bibliographic data into the man pages that
cite the sources is not yet available, but we hope to have some
prototypes in the next month.

[apologies if i mess up the threading on this topic; i did not receive
the original e-mail to r-devel]

Vince Carey
stvjc at channing.harvard.edu
Martin Maechler
# 
Vince> Romain Francois suggests that a central bibliographic database
    Vince> (possibly in bibtex format) might be useful for reference inclusion
    Vince> in R package man pages.  This has been discussed by a small
    Vince> group, with one proposal presented for a package-specific bibtex database
    Vince> placed in a dedicated package subdirectory.  Man page references would
    Vince> then cite the sources enumerated in the database using their bibtex
    Vince> tags.  This approach could encourage better annotation and should
    Vince> confer greater accuracy on package:literature referencing.

a very good idea!
I've wished more than once that we had something like that in
place...

My intermediate workaround has been the following, e.g., in
package 'cluster', in man/fanny.Rd,  I have
   \seealso{
     \code{\link{agnes}} for background and references;
     ....
   }

and then no \references{.} in the fanny.Rd file;  but this
workaround is not very satisfactory,
and I am looking forward to your proposals.

Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich


    Vince> This does not rule out a central archive that might include all the
    Vince> references cited in base man pages.

    Vince> We are doing some work on harvesting the bibliographic citations
    Vince> in man pages in an R distribution, and converting them to a regular
    Vince> format.  The \references section is free form, so the conversion
    Vince> is not trivial, but progress has been made.

    Vince> The infrastructure required to use this approach to propagate
    Vince> (e.g., bibtex-formatted) bibliographic data into the man pages that
    Vince> cite the sources is not yet available, but we hope to have some
    Vince> prototypes in the next month.

    Vince> [apologies if i mess up the threading on this topic; i did not receive
    Vince> the original e-mail to r-devel]

    Vince> Vince Carey
    Vince> stvjc at channing.harvard.edu