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Jeff Smith wrote:
Hi!
A couple of questions regarding BibTeX and ConTeXt. :-)
1) For various reasons I want to make my own .bbl file. Do I understand correctly that I therefore don't need to use \setupbibtex in my document?
Correct. Don't use \setupbibtex in that case, because it will trigger bibtex runs and those will likely destroy your handcrafted bbl.
2) In an automatically generated .bbl file, the \setuppublicationlist command seems to have as a value for the samplesize parameter the very first s-key of the list, .i.e that of the first publication in the database.
In some styles, the "s" (=short) key is used for both referencing and labelling in the list of publications. The "samplesize" decides how much space on the left should be reserved for the labels in that style. It will make the publication list look like this: [Ach75] Random musings about greenery. Achinaeus Julius, Emperial Elite press, Rome, 75 BCE. [...] Etc. etc. And cites will be like As can be read in [Ach75], ...
3) Are the brackets absolutely necessary? With more than one name, perhaps?
Whenever there are embedded commas or square brackets in the keys, just like in the rest of context. Bibtex is paranoid and inserts many extra braces, just in case. Best wishes, Taco