[OS X TeX] Re: Plea/Request: Bibtex with increased BUF_SIZE

[Lee Samuel Finn]

On 3-sep-2006 at 00:12 Maarten Sneep wrote:


> On 2-sep-2006, at 23:54, Lee Samuel Finn wrote:
>
>
>> The bibtex BUF_SIZE constant, set at compile time, controls the
>> maximum size of strings. Unfortunately, in all the assorted
>> distributions I've been able to find, that size is set too low for
>> some of my bibtex entries. (Unfortunately I can't make the entries
>> shorter: they are required that way by the funding agency --- NSF
>>
> ---
>
>> I'm writing a proposal to.) My plea/request: a bibtex that has a
>> significantly larger BUF_SIZE --- say, at least 20000 (yes - twenty
>> thousand) and other increased parameter sizes as necessary for this
>> to work.
>>
>> It would be wonderful if the assorted tex distributions --- e.g.,
>> gwTeX, TeXLive --- were to distribute their compiled versions with a
>> larger BUF_SIZE.
>>
>
> Do the work-arounds offered in the FAQ [1] provide a workable
> alternative for you?
>
> Maarten
>
> [1] http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=bibstrtl
>
>

Unfortunately not. I did try this and, when it didn't do the trick,
went digging deeper. The problem is the BUF_SIZE compile-time
constant, which sets the maximum number of characters in an input
line (or string). Its default value is set in the first instance in
bibtex.web to 1000, and then changed in bibtex.ch to 5000. I suppose
that, to do things write, an update to bibtex.ch would be needed:
then the build of a tex distribution would build a bibtex with the
appropriate variable size set.

--
Lee Samuel Finn                                    Phone: +01 814  
863-9598
Director, Center for Gravitational Wave Physics    Fax:   +01 814  
863-9608
Professor, Department of Physics, Astronomy and Astrophysics
The Pennsylvania State University
104 Davey Laboratory, PMB#145
University Park, PA 16802



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