Re: Upstreaming parsebib.el

[Roland Winkler]

On Thu, Jan 16 2025, Joost Kremers wrote:
> - `parsebib` is a library for parsing .bib files, i.e., it is not a major
>   mode for editing them. IOW, it's not user-facing, it's intended for
>   developers. (Also, it doesn't compete with `bibtex.el`.)

I haven't looked into parsebib in detail.  But as the maintainer of
bibtex.el I see no problem.  The goal of bibtex.el is to facilitate
editing bib files.  From what you say, my understanding of parsebib is
to use bib files as a database (beyond what LaTeX can do in combination
with the actual BibTeX program / biblatex).

Could it be that reftex.el (in GNU Emacs core) might benefit from
parsebib?  I do not know the internals of reftex.el either.  But I know
that reftex.el comes with its own parser for BibTeX files.  So parsebib
may help to avoid redundancies.

> One question that would arise is obviously compatibility with `bibtex.el`.
> `parsebib` tends to favour biblatex over BibTeX, which IIUC, is not the
> case for `bibtex.el` (CC: Roland Winkler).

What does "favour" mean from the perspective of parsebib?  To the best
of my knowledge, the file format supported by biblatex is identical to
the format used by old-fashioned BibTeX.  The only differences are that
biblatex supports a wider range of BibTeX entry types and biblatex
provides more options for generating bibliographies in LaTeX documents.
But for a parser of bib files the way you describe it, this should not
make a significant difference.

Roland