Directory macros/latex/contrib/camel

Last updated: 17 Feb 1997

Welcome to version 1.0t of camel.sty and its friends.  Camel is a
LaTeX2e macro package that will, if all goes according to plan,
one day drastically simplify the typesetting of citations and
bibliographies in (potentially) a wide variety of styles and
formats.  This release is a *prototype*, and should be treated
as ALPHA software; I hope that you will experiment with it and
send me your comments, but you should not assume that it is
perfect, and you should not assume that it will not change.

Using Camel, citations are referred to in a way similar to that
used in `standard BibTeX', but with a number of significant
enhancements; citation tags can be used to generate subdivided
bibliographies, separate bibliographies for each subdivision of a
larger work are supported, as are in-footnote cross-referenced
citations, bibliographies indexed to the pages where citations to
the relevant work occur, and much else.  This is also the only
supported LaTeX2e bibliography style that supports legal
citation styles (using the law.dtx module).  The package also
provides genuinely helpful error messages and an extremely simple
syntax for adding details like page numbers and the like to
citation tags.

To use Camel, you will need to fetch camel.dtx and its extractor,
camel.ins, and law.dtx with its extractor law.ins.  You will also
need to fetch and extract index.dtx/index.ins, the (pre-release)
index support package for LaTeX2e by David M. Jones, and the
"keyval" package that can be found on CTAN in latex/packages/graphics.
To typeset the documentation (by running camel.dtx and law.dtx
themselves directly through LaTeX), you will need the array.sty
package.  Also, and most important, you will need a BibTeX that
has a wizard-defined function space of over 7,000.  The standard
BibTeX (with a function space of 3,000) is too small to handle
the .bst files used by the Camel style modules.

*** Notes on version 1.0s ***

In the past year there have been a few bug fixes in the 1.0r
code.  Since some people are using the package (!), I'm
releasing these fixes as version 1.0s.  The new release
includes a sample bibtex.ch file, based on jbibtex.ch (NOT
the usual bibtex.ch --- use only as a reference.)

*** Notes on version 1.0r ***

FOR USERS UPDATING THEIR CAMEL: In this version, I have fixed a
small bug in the @ARTICLE entry type in law.dtx, and have
cut out the code used to show case holdings, comments, questions
and fact patterns (a whip-round asking who wanted to preserve
these features received no response, so out they went).
I have also fixed a fatal bug in the code that handles pinpoints
in parallel citations.  Please note that this release calls on
the new index.sty for LaTeX2e distributed by David Jones as the
index.dtx package.  You will need this new version of index.sty
to run version 1.0q of Camel.  The previous prerelease of that
file, 'indexdmj.sty' can be deleted from your system.  Note that
you also do need the "keyval" package from CTAN.

NOTE ON FUTURE CHANGES: This version (v1.0r) will is the last
of its kind --- but this does not mean the end of Camel.
Rather, it marks a new beginning.  As many of you will know,
Oren Patashnik is at work on an upgrade of BibTeX to
version 1.0.  As things look at present, the new BibTeX will
make a further rationalization of the structure of the Camel
code.  Not only will this make the editing of styles easier,
but it will also increase the overall speed of processing
a document, and reduce the amount of memory required in LaTeX.

On a rough guess, these changes will about double the size of
the (already large) BibTeX style file for legal citations, and
render about half of the existing LaTeX style code in Camel
redundant (sniff, sniff).  The inputs --- your documents and
your bibliographies --- should work equally well with the new-style
package, but fairness dictates that I at least let folks know
what's going to happen.

The most immediate effect of these plans is that I will do
nothing to enhance the existing code until BibTeX 1.0 comes
out.  Given that Oren Patashnik has a large amount of work to
do on BibTeX, and given the scale of the changes contemplated
for Camel, this could all take awhile.  So there you have it;
a curious form of `stability'.

Have a nice ride!

FB@soas.ac.uk