vince@dcl-cs.UUCP (Vincent Aragon) (05/28/85)
We're working with bibliographic databases in which each record tends to have long abstracts. We also use all fields (%A to %Z inclusive). When I use the command "roffbib -x <file>" I get the error "Error: record at line <n> too long". When I omit the "-x" flag, I don't get any errors. I would very much appreciate it if anyone could help me. Thanks in Anticipation, Vince -- NAME: Vicente Aragon Ramirez Project: Circe information retrieval JANET: vince@uk.ac.lancs.comp DARPA: vince%lancs.comp@ucl-cs UUCP: ...!ukc!icdoc!dcl-cs!vince PHONE: +44 524 65201 Ext. 4599 POST: Department of Computing, University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lancaster. LA1 4YR
holte@brueer.UUCP (Robert Holte) (06/01/85)
> When I use the command "roffbib -x <file>" I get the error > "Error: record at line <n> too long". > > When I omit the "-x" flag, I don't get any errors. > > NAME: Vicente Aragon Ramirez Project: Circe information retrieval > UUCP: ...!ukc!icdoc!dcl-cs!vince PHONE: +44 524 65201 Ext. 4599 Roffbib is little more than a call to refer -B The default for refer -B is to precede the contents of the abstract (%X) field by a call to the .AP macro. One can specify another macro, say MM, simply by refer -BX.MM One way to have abstracts ignored is refer "-BX.ig ]-" This places a call to .ig ]- (an nroff macro meaning ignore all input text up to the next call to .]-) prior to the abstract contents. ]- is the macro refer uses at the beginning of every bibliographic entry. An ed input script which can be used to modify a copy of roffbib (/usr/bin/roffbib) so that the -x option has this effect is given at the end of this message. Note that there are many restrictions in refer/roffbib regarding the sizes of various strings. For instance, the error message printed above is not specific to long abstracts: "record" refers to the concatenation of all the fields specified for a given entry, and it is possible to exceed the maximum "record" size of 1536 characters without any abstract at all (e.g. if you had many authors with long names writing an article with a long title in an edited collection...). Most of the limits are easily changed in the refer source (the one in question is QLEN, a constant defined in refer..c). -- Rob Holte JANET,ARPA: holte%brueer@ucl-cs Brunel University UUCP: ...seismo!ukc!reading!brueer!holte England -------------- ed input script to patch up /usr/bin/roffbib ------------ ----- ***** before using change "DOT" to "." ***** --------------------- 44c (echo .ds TL $headr; refer -a1 "$abstr") | $xroff $flags $macro DOT 42c (echo .ds TL $headr; refer -a1 "$abstr" $*) | $xroff $flags $macro DOT 19c abstr=-BX.ig\ ]- DOT 8c abstr=-B DOT w