5.2 BibTeX ¶
Casual BibTeX is an opinionated user interface for BibTeX mode (info “(emacs) TeX Mode”), a major mode for working with BibTeX files (BibTeX Guide).
A BibTeX file is typically named using the suffix .bib to identify its file type.
To appreciate the benefits of Casual BibTeX, it helps to understand what BibTex is and what BibTeX mode offers.
BibTeX is a database schema for bibliography data. This data is best understood as a collection of records (or entries) that is stored in a plain-text file. Multiple text files can be supported. While most tooling for BibTeX is tuned for LaTeX documentation workflows, BibTeX can be used as generalized storage for bibliography data. Org provides extensive support for citing using BibTeX (info “(org) Citation handling”).
As a BibTeX file is plain-text based, any plain-text editor can be used to edit it. This flexibility is problematic as plain-text editors will not enforce the schema of BibTeX by default.
Emacs distinguishes itself from other editors in that support for working with BibTeX files is built-in with the package bibtex.
The bibtex package provides commands for both navigating and editing BibTeX data structures (entries and the fields within an entry) in a quasi-“form-based” way.
Casual BibTeX organizes and augments BibTeX mode commands into a keyboard-driven menu.
The screenshot below shows the menu for Casual BibTeX.
