Monday, December 14, 2009

Idea for a simple bib tool

I was using Zotero for my research readings, however, it is a bit too heavy for me, and I want a tool that can be portable across machines. So I am planning to write a bib tool for myself when I am a bit free sometime next spring.

The most important concept in this tool:

  • Keep it Simple: there will NOT be fancy setup interface, but a config XML; there will not be many export styles for that is latex’s business.
  • Depend less: there is already many advanced tools for bib organization, but they depend on this and that. I plan to implement all this tool with Python and sqlite3, so it can be put into U-key/Dropbox, and used anywhere.

The basci senarios is:

  1. User start the tool, which set up a local web sever at a high port (eg: 8080), and open any browser to land on the interface.
  2. To add a new paper, user have to
    1. upload a pdf file
    2. add bibtex info by
      1. upload a crospending a bibtex file
      2. fill a form to generate bibtex info
    3. add optional tags
    4. add optional note
  3. To view paper:
    1. start a search (empty field means any)
    2. a list of reference is returned
    3. (optional) open pdf file
  4. To export
    1. start a search
    2. select paper and add to “basket”
    3. go to export folder and get a sorted bib for all and BIB’s for each files and copies of PDF’s

Suggestions are always welcomed :)

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