Abusing TEX: custom-bib as an example
Patrick W. Daly
Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie
daly@linmpi.mpg.de
Monday July 21, 2003
Although TEX is essentially a typesetting program, there are a number of
``mis-uses'' of it to accomplish what could be called off-topic programming.
The most complex example of this is no doubt the fontinst bundle,
which creates the .tfm and .vf metric and virtual font
files for PostScript fonts. Another service routine written in TEX with no
.dvi output is docstrip, which is part of the kernel
LATEX installation, and which is vital for that installation. Originally
docstrip was intended as a utility to remove comments from
installation source files, but it now contains an even more powerful feature:
it can customize the output code according to preselected options, and it can
combine code from several source files.
It was this property that I employed to simplify an old problem with
BIBTEX: that every publisher uses his own list of arbitrary
formatting rules, and it is not easy to write new .bst files to meet
these demands. Thus I wrote a generalized master bibliography style,
or .mbs file, containing some 50 options for alternative
bibliography style points, to be converted to a .bst file with
docstrip. Today, my merlin.mbs claims well over 100
options.
The more complicated part of the custom-bib bundle, however, is
interfacing with the user, to manage the myriad choices, and to generate a
docstrip batch file to do the actual conversion. This required yet
another pseudo-program in TEX language, makebst which examines all
the available options in the .mbs file, offers them to the user
interactively, prepares the batch file, writes a protocol (for future
changes of mind), and even runs the batch file. Without this,
merlin.mbs would be totally unmanageable; it is the tamer of the
wizard.
Such utilities written in the TEX language are guaranteed to run on all
systems where TEX is installed. Any other program language would involve
problems of platform compatibilities and portability. This advantage
outweighs the fact that as a programming language per se, TEX is a
monster.
Wendy McKay
2003-11-24
