[seqfan] Re: standard format for refs in OEIS?

T. D. Noe noe at sspectra.com
Tue Jan 15 00:56:13 CET 2013


Propose that every reference/link have a unique id enclosed in [[ ]]. For
example,

L. Euler, <a href="http://arXiv.org/abs/math.HO/0505373">On the remarkable
properties of the pentagonal numbers</a> [[Euler.0505373]] page 11

Everything before the unique id would be the same every time it is used.
Everything following the id is unique to the sequence in which it appears.
The unique id could also tie into a database of all references.  If we ever
decide to change the format, it would be easy because all the information
could reside in a database like Bibtex.

Needs more work.

Tony


At 3:25 PM -0500 1/14/13, Neil Sloane wrote:
>At present the references in the OEIS (to papers, books etc) are not in a
>uniform format, nor are the links.
>
>If we were to put them into a uniform style, what should we use?
>Bibtex format is one possibility, but is that the best? It is pretty
>ancient, is there something more recent?
>
>Here are some of the goals (there are many others):
>- make it clear what the start of the last name is, for sorting [Smith,
>Jon as opposed to John Smith]
>- make it possible to link with the Zentralblatt or Math Sci Net (MSN)
>databases so the we can add Zbl or MSN links
>- include URLs for documents that are on the web
>- if we can get it to work, the OEIS software would then make any
>reference that had a URL into an active link - then we could get rid of
>the difference between Reference (%D) lines and Link (%H) lines [Tricky
>because many of the links now are to entries in the Index to the OEIS - so
>that would have to be one of the fields in the Bibtex entry, if we decide
>on Bibtex]
>- to be compatible with Russ Cox's search mechanism, so that one could for
>example specify a search for papers by Smith that appeared in 1983.
>
>I like the way Bibtex separates all the different parts of a reference
>into fields. If we were to use that, we would probably string all the
>separate fields together into one long line.
>
>Whatever we decide, the conversion will take a while - we have 220000
>sequence entries, 60000 references and 140000 links.
>Which is why it is important to choose the right format before we start
>converting.
>
>In short, thinking about the future of the OEIS, what format (Bibtex?)
>should we use for references and links?
>
>Neil Sloane 
>
>
>--
>
>Dear Friends, I have now retired from AT&T. New coordinates:
>
>Neil J. A. Sloane, President, OEIS Foundation
>11 South Adelaide Avenue, Highland Park, NJ 08904, USA
>Phone: 732 828 6098; home page: <http://NeilSloane.com>http://NeilSloane.com
>Email: <mailto:njasloane at gmail.com>njasloane at gmail.com





More information about the SeqFan mailing list