Templates: Bibliographic Entry in Emacs
Mike Smith pointed me to a templates package for emacs. You define a template, insert some variables, and when a user inserts the template in a document, they are prompted to enter macro terms.
I got to thinking this would be an ideal way to drive data entry for bibliographic data in more abstract data models like RISX or MODS. Instead of worrying about concrete naming – book title, author, editor, etc. – in the schema, why not use the template functionality to make entry more user-friendly?
I’ve posted a few MODS examples here, using my custom notes schema in the extension. I have set the templates up so that, in many places, if a user does not enter a value at a prompt, no XML element is inserted. Likewise, some things (like date, user name, etc.) are auto-inserted.
If anyone has any suggestions on the legal example, let me know. I’ve not really spent much time on it, nor do I understand legal citations enough to know how to construct the template. Also, I’d be happy if others created additional templates, either for MODS, or for RISX (RefDB’s current XML format).
Oh, and Mike (mentioned above) has also put together a menu for the templates package. Here’s a screenshot:
Mike has been on something of a menu roll these days. First he released a menu for nXML, now the template menu, and coming soon: a menu for RefDB.
