BibTeX
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|
| Original author(s) | Oren Patashnik, Leslie Lamport |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Oren Patashnik |
| Initial release | March 1985 |
| Stable release |
0.99d / March 2010
|
| Development status | Maintained |
| Written in | WEB |
| Platform | Cross-platform |
| Available in | English |
BibTeX is reference management software for formatting lists of references. The BibTeX tool is typically used together with the LaTeX document preparation system. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The name is a portmanteau of the word bibliography and the name of the TeX typesetting software.
The purpose of BibTeX is to make it easy to cite sources in a consistent manner, by separating bibliographic information from the presentation of this information, similarly to the separation of content and presentation/style supported by LaTeX itself.
In the words of the program’s author:
Here’s how BibTeX works. It takes as input
BibTeX chooses from the .bib file(s) only those entries specified by the .aux file (that is, those given by LaTeX's \cite or \nocite commands), and creates as output a .bbl file containing these entries together with the formatting commands specified by the .bst file [..]. LaTeX will use the .bbl file, perhaps edited by the user, to produce the reference list.
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