README

  Text::BibTeX
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  Text::BibTeX is a Perl library for reading, parsing, and processing
  BibTeX files.  It is the Perl half of btOOL, a pair of libraries for
  dealing with BibTeX data.

  Text::BibTeX gives you access to the data at many different levels:
  you may work with BibTeX entries as simple "field -> string"
  mappings, or get at the original form of the data as a list of
  simple values (strings, macros, or numbers) pasted together.  You
  can choose not to impose nany restrictions on the allowed/expected
  entry types or fields, or you can use the structure defined by
  BibTeX 0.99's standard style files, or you can invent your own.

  The library is copiously documented.  After installing the module,
  see the Text::BibTeX man page for a comprehensive introduction to
  the system.  If you wish to dive straight in without regards for
  niceties such as splitting and formatting names, defining or
  imposing database structures, getting access to unprocessed field
  values, and other nifty features, then you can probably get away
  with just reading the Text::BibTeX::Entry man page.
  Comments/criticism of the documentation are welcome.


  In addition to the man pages embedded in each module (and available
  after installation), Greg Ward has written a technical report
  describing btOOL, with the btparse and Text::BibTeX documentation
  included as appendices.  The whole report is just over 100 pages,
  around 45 of which make up the Text::BibTeX documentation (the
  btparse documentation is a further 30 pages).  You can find it at
  the btOOL home page:

    http://www.gerg.ca/software/btOOL/


  INSTALLATION
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  To install Text::BibTeX you need a recent Perl, an ANSI-compliant C
  compiler and a bunch of Perl modules.

  The build system changed with version 0.40, and has been tested in
  different platforms, ranging from Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and
  Windows. Unfortunately on this last just the Strawberry Perl
  distribution was a success.

  To build the module use the usual set of commands for a
  Module::Build distribution:

    perl Build.PL
    ./Build
    ./Build test

  And then, as super user, install it

    ./Build install

  Note that if your Perl is installed in a non standard path you can
  end up with libbtparse library in the wrong place. If the tests pass
  successfully, but after installing you can not issue

    perl -MText::BibTeX

  without an error message, then probably libbtparse is not reachable
  by the library loader. In this case you can either copy the library
  to the proper place or add the path to the library in the
  LD_LIBARY_PATH environment variable.