Comments on BibTex-FM tools

[Fred Ma <fma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

Would anyone be able to comment on the candidate
solutions that I've found to the problem of using a
database for citation references?  Suggestions for
commmon practice and the alternative that would involve
the least overhead and be the most flexible (if they
are not competing priorities) would be appreciated.

My problem:
-----------
I'm finding it very precarious trying to rewrite a
document and copying references and citations.  The
order in which the citations and references appear in
the new document is not the same as in the old
document.  And the number of times a references is
cited is not the same either.  In fact, some references
aren't even cited in the rewrite.  It's quite messy and
I can only rely on my own fallible reading to make sure
that references aren't pasted twice in the new
document.  If I had BibTex, I can stick all the
references in a database without worrying about the
reference format.  Then I can cite them wherever and
whenever I want, and latex would compile a list of
references of the appropriate format and desired
ordering.  Currently, I've put off the problem of
ordering the references in FM.

Potential solutions
-------------------

Since I want to avoid ramping up on new stuff, and I'm
familiar with BibTex, I avoid the following two tools
mentioned in the comp.text.frame FAQ fmbib and EndNote
Plus.  

All solution appearing at
http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/software/framemaker/framemaker.html
also seem to available at
http://www.klariti.com/Framemaker-Filters.html

Using BibTex database from FM:

   #1
   According to comp.text.frame's FAQ, a tool to deal
   with BibTex-to-FM are BibFrame (once the Bibtex
   database is established).  However, it seems to
   target FM5 (we've got FM6 here).

   #2
   Another contender is CiteMaker, which is apparently
   more integrated with FM, and thus able to maintain
   WYSIWYG.

   #3
   BibTex Translator for FM
   http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/software/framemaker/framemaker.html

To get the BibTex database from FM, there seem to be
many options.  Since I just relied on my own typing to
format the references in FM, I will likely have to
clean up alot of the BibTex output no matter which
converter I use.

FM to BibTex database:

   #1
   FremMaker to Bibtex
   http://ais.gmd.de/~wilberg/desktop/paper/bibConv/README.html
   There is a perl-looking script fm2bibLib.pl that
   seems to take an FM file saved a text file.

   #2
   FrameMaker MIF to LaTeX Translator
   http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/software/framemaker/framemaker.html
   But, it only works on FM styles that use la_temp
   templates, which I never heard of before visiting
   this page (and thus did not use in writing up my 100
   or so references).

Thanks.

Fred
fma@doe.carleton.ca

P.S.  I've sent this to comp.text.frame,
adobe.framemaker, and framers@omsys.com.
-- 
Fred Ma, fma@doe.carleton.ca
Carleton University, Dept. of Electronics
1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario
Canada, K1S 5B6

** To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@omsys.com **
** with "unsubscribe framers" (no quotes) in the body.   **