texmf/bibtex substructure

[Oren Patashnik]

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Generally, I don't have strong feelings about whether or not the
directory structure gets changed now; I can see good arguments for
both sides.  I probably will have stronger feelings about it when
BibTeX 1.0 eventually comes out.  (Actually, I think I prefer a
structure that generates the least amount of email for me. :-) I do
have a few observations, based on browsing through the CTAN and
through the texmf/ subdirectory.

(1) The apalike.{bst,doc,sty,tex} files point up some of the difficulties:

    apalike.bst---the bibliography style file
    apalike.doc---the documentation file for apalike.sty
    apalike.sty---apalike.doc with comments removed
    apalike.tex---roughly, an apalike.sty equivalent, for use with btxmac

I'm not sure where these files belong, but currently, it often happens
that the only file that users actually have is apalike.bst (I know
that that's the only file of the four that exists on our system, aside
from my own personal copies).  At the very least apalike.sty should
exist by default as well.

(2) Ulrik commented:

       xampl.bib is in doc/base rather than bib/base, since I consider it
       documentation.

Actually, I think of xampl.bib both as documentation and as sample
input for .bst writers to test their styles on; if forced to pick one
place or the other, I'd probably pick bib/base, at least for BibTeX
0.99.  In any case, if it is moved to doc/base, then the README file
in bib/base should probably say so, and/or the BIBINPUTS variable
should have xampl.bib added to it.

(3) I noticed the file bibshare, in texmf/doc/bibtex/; while it gives
some not unreasonable suggestions for sharing database files, it
probably doesn't belong in that directory, since the other files are
all "base" files.  The file should probably be moved, although I'm not
sure where, and the person who wrote bibshare should probably add some
comments saying for whom the advice is intended, and add their name.
Perhaps that information was obvious in the context of its original
directory.  [By the way, some of the advice in that file may change,
given the @ALIAS command that's to appear in BibTeX 1.0.  Also, the
suggestion
     Address entries must always include the country
at the end of that file seems wrong to me---if the address is "London"
or "Paris" or "Rome" then omitting the country seems preferable
(unless if course it's a different London or Paris or Rome).]

(4) Currently, in CTAN's /tex-archive/biblio/bibtex/distribs/styles/
there is no acm.bst; there should be.  (That is, acm.bst should be in
the same place as apalike.bst, ieeetr.bst, and siam.bst.)

	--Oren Patashnik (opbibtex@cs.stanford.edu)