ARPAVAX:UNKNOWN:G:tut (10/31/82)
I'm revising "refer" for inclusion on 4.2 BSD, fixing bugs and eliminating numerous lint errors, so I'm soliciting comments on three command-line options I'd like to change. First, the default now is to search the bibliography indexed in /usr/dict/papers/Ind. Since most users have a private database, I'd like "refer" to search the current directory for a filename ending in ".ia" (the index of a private database); if such a file didn't exist, the system database would be searched. The -n flag would disable both phases of searching. This new behavior would make specifying "-p database" unnecessary in most cases. Second, I'd like to reverse the -l and -k flags. The -k option currently prints the %L field as a footnote label, whereas the -l option prints keywords made from the author's name and the date, much like what "Social Science format" requires. I could easily be talked out of this change, because even though it's logical, it's not upwardly compatible. Third, I plan to add a -f flag to set footnote numbers. This doesn't seem very controversial; "refer" currently doesn't allow you to start with any value except 1. Bill Tuthill ucbvax!g:tut