KB> Date: Fri, 4 May 2018 22:36:29 GMT KB> From: Karl Berry <[log in to unmask]> KB> Hello LaTeX folk. Oren (Patashnik) has expressed a desire to do KB> "whatever seems useful" (given that compatibility is paramount) with a KB> future BibTeX release -- not that anything is going to happen quickly, KB> but he wanted to start gathering information at this point. KB> For instance, clearly it would be nice to have a url field in the base KB> styles. But, what to do in the .bbl file? Assume \url{...} works? But KB> there have been different versions over the years and they don't all KB> accept the same thing, e.g., bare "#" and "%" in the url, not to mention KB> \url{...} vs. \url|...|, etc. And it induces a new dependency (to load KB> url/hyperrref/something) on the document, though maybe that is not a big KB> deal. Or maybe use a new macro, \btxurl, whose definition is output by KB> bibtex itself? That doesn't sound right. KB> A doi field is another glaring candidate. But there there isn't even a KB> commonly-available \doi command in the first place. So what to do? \btxdoi? KB> Maybe BibTeX could provide a core file bibtex.sty which is (implicitly?, KB> if available) loaded to define all such macros, probably mostly by KB> loading other packages? Sounds fraught with possible problems, but I KB> guess it's the most general solution. I think the de-facto standard for fields like url and doi is natbib. I am not saying all bibtex-based packages must use natbib (although my packages certainly do), but I think any interface should at least try to be natbib compatible -- Good luck -Boris To teach is to learn twice. -- Joseph Joubert