From: kta@cs.hut.fi (Kari Alho)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Programs to manage academic bibliographies?
Date: 7 Jan 1993 12:45:12 GMT
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Distribution: inet
NNTP-Posting-Host: frodo.cs.hut.fi
In-reply-to: Per Fjelstad's message of Wed, 30 Dec 1992 11:44:41 EST

In article <92365.114441PEF2@psuvm.psu.edu> Per Fjelstad <PEF2@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:

   For several years I have been searching for software specifically designed to
   organize bibliographic databases.  Records would have fields for author, title,
   publisher, etc., as well as fields for subject headings, keywords, and general
   comments or notes.

   Finally I found an MS-DOS executable program in an archive (wuarchive.wustle.ed
   u) that seems to fit the bill.  It is called Academic Reference Management Syst
   em Plus (AP11.ZIP in the archive).  Ping Sing Kuo, now professor of economics i
   n Taiwan, wrote it and put it in the public domain in early 1990.  Since the pr
   ogram claims to fulfill precisely my cataloguing needs, I am inclined to begin
   to learn how to use it.  I hesitate, for the moment, however, unfamiliar as I a
   m with anyone who has had experience using that (or a similar) program.

   I post in this newsgroup to draw on some of your experience and knowledge:

       1.  Have any of you used this program (AP.EXE)?

       2.  What cataloguing and retrieval needs did it serve well?

       3.  What difficulties did you have using the program?

       4.  Were the data stored in a form that could be read by
	   a new or different program?

       5.  More generally, have you had good or poor experiences using
	   shareware programs of this kind?

       6.  Are there other newsgroups you know of that might be able to give
	   me more specific direction in my search for software to manage
	   my bibliographic references?


   Thank you for your assistance,

   Per Fjelstad, (Ph.D. Cand.)
   Rhetorical Studies,
   Dept. of Speech Communication,
   Penn State University


I can only answer questions nr. 5 and 6.  Me and some colleagues have
been using a freeware program called bibview for some time, and its
capabilities seem adequate and we are generally quite happy with it.
It runs on UNIX workstations and uses X Window System for the user
interface.  The data is stored in BibTeX format.

I found the sources in newsgroup comp.sources.x.  This is the contents
of the README file:


                               BIBVIEW 
            (graphical interface for BibTeX program)
	     by Holger Martin, Peter Urban, Armin Liebl 
		  liebla@informatik.tu-muenchen.de



What "bibview" is:
------------------

    The program "bibview" is a graphical interface for manipulating
    BiBTeX databases. It supports the user in making new entries,
    searching for entries and moving entries from one BiB to another.
    It is possible to work with more than one BiB simultaneously. 
    bibview is implemented with Xt and Athena Widgets.
    There are six types of windows in bibview:
    The main window contains menus for customizing bibview and
    for working with BiBs on the file level.
    The bibliography window (one for every open BiB) contains commands
    for manipulating the BiB.
    The list window (at most one for every open BiB) shows a list of
    entries. It displays the fields author, title, type and year.
    The card window (at most one for every entry) helps editing an entry. 
    It contains boxes for each field of the entry (according to the type).
    The fields can be edited by putting the mouse cursor into the field.
    Macros in fields and the symbol for concatenation ('#') are marked
    with a preceding '@'.


Installing bibview:
-------------------

    bibview was tested on a HP 9000/710 running HP/UX, 
    DECstation 2100 and MicroVax II running ULTRIX and
    on a SUN running SunOS 4.1.
    To install bibview, type "xmkmf" and then "make". 
    Good luck!
    To create the German version, insert -DGERMAN.


Questions, comments, hacked source code: 
----------------------------------------
Armin Liebl
liebla@informatik.tu-muenchen.de

--
//  Kari Alho                            //  Telephone : +358-0-451 3390  //
//  Helsinki University of Technology    //  FAX       : +358-0-451 3293  //
//  Department of Computer Science       //  Internet  : kta@cs.hut.fi    //
Xref: sparky comp.databases:8998 comp.infosystems.gis:4710