I'm a developer on refdb (http://refdb.sourceforge.net/), which is not aimed at medievalists, per se, but is powerful and outputs in a variety of formats. "Cite-as-you-write" is still a bit weak (though it works well in XML). Because the outputs are XSL determined, problems like you discuss with eds. and commas are easily fixable.
It is a server based program.
-----Original Message----- From: dm-l-bounces@uleth.ca on behalf of Toufexis Notis Sent: Wed 28/11/2007 13:53 To: dm-l, MailList Subject: Re: [dm-l] Bibliographical software for medievalists
Ever tried zotero? Available at http://www.zotero.org/ it lives as a Firefox extension. It's note as versatile as a dedicated bibliographical software but can do more then that and can prove valuable as an overall research tool.
I am also using jabref (http://jabref.sourceforge.net/), written in Java, open source and BibTex based. It's not exactly user friendly but quite powerful.
Best, Notis
On 28 Nov 2007, at 20:42, Peter Baker wrote:
I'm wondering what bibliographical software people on this list are using. Last time I needed such software I used BibTeX, despite certain significant lacks. Now BibLaTeX looks very good. But with my last venture my publisher got kinda cranky about getting files in LaTeX, so I'm hesitant to go that route again.
I've been using the Mellel word processor because of its nice typography, sensibly structured files and pleasant interface. I got Bookends to go with it for bibliographical management, but I find it shockingly bad--introducing stray commas in bib entries and doing crazy stuff like rendering authors' names as "Smith, John" but editors' names (when there is no author) as "John Smith." Unless I just haven't figured out how to use it, I think it quite unusable.
So: what are the tech-savvy people on this list doing about bibliographical management? As medievalists we need software that handles edited books (with or without authors' names) gracefully, can handle translations, and can help with the complicated bibliographical situations we sometimes face in series like CCSL. It would be nice if it could produce a two-part bibliography ("primary works"/"secondary works"). For my own purposes, it would be nice if it ran on both the Mac and Linux, but I'd settle for Mac-only software if it would just work properly.
Peter Baker
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