Suggestions/Questions

[Jonathan Adrain]

A few suggestions/questions about Bookends 8 (hope none of this seems critical - these come up because the program is indispensable).

• Command-T is used twice, once for database backup under File Menu, and secondly for Plain Text under Style menu. First works under List view, second when in Reference view. You can't back up the database (with a keystroke, anyway, as far as I can tell) when the Reference window is active. Is it possible to make a universal backup keystroke combination that works in both List and Reference views?

• When navigating in List view, my default behaviour is to type the first few letters of an authors name and let the window scroll to that part of the database. When the database is first opened, the list view pane of the List window is not active. Rather, the Groups pane is active. It may seem like a small thing, but it's a pain to have to click on the list or else tab over before getting going. Frequently I launch my bibliographic software just to look up a reference and close it when I'm done. This is a little roadblock in the way every time. Are there any users for whom defaulting to the Groups pane is more useful? I'd really find it much, much more useful if the List pane was active on launch.

• Jon knows about this and will I'm sure fix it, but currently (still with 8.0.1) none of the characters with accents above the letter in the Latin Extended-A range are copied properly when pasted to word processors either manually (command-K) or during a bibliography scan. Šnajdr, for example, becomes Snajdr. This range includes virtually all the unicode characters I really need to use (mostly for the Czech scientific literature).

• List sorting - Bookends' behaviour may be correct, but... Any time an author's name starts with an accented letter of any kind, when sorted in the list view these names go all the way to the bottom of the list. For example, Öpik goes down at the bottom after Zhou, and Šnajdr at the very bottom after Öpik. I realize that these are not just letters in the English language with funny marks on them, but rather completely different letters that don't exist in English, but I'm used to having these authors sort where they normally would without the diacritical marks in the list, or at least to fall immediately after the range of the non-accented letter (e.g., Šnajdr following after all the "S" authors rather than after the "Z"s). Certainly most academic journals require that bibliographies be formatted with these references in the alphabetical position as if they did not have an initial diacritical. I can't fully test what Bookends' behaviour is here, due to the bug which converts the Latin Extended-A into non-accented letters. Öpik, though, is sorted correctly alphabetically when scanning a bibliography (i.e., amongst the Os). So why does it go in List view after Z? Could this be changed?

Thanks and best,
Jonathan

[Jon]

Hi Jonathan, thanks for the suggestions.

1. I have removed the command key from the Backup menu (thanks for pointing the conflict out). I've also enabled back ups from the list view. You'll see this in 8.0.2.

2. I'll think about this. I tend to agree with you about usefulness, although I thought the current implementation is a bit more rational, if you see what I mean. What do other folks think?

3. I'll be looking into that soon -- there were other things I had to get to first.

4. Bookends uses different sorts for different things. The bibliography sort, which is the most important IMHO, uses the ICU library, and does what you want. To "fix" the list sort I'd have to use the ICU library, which is slower (you wouldn't see any difference with 100 references, but would with 5000). I am aware of the descrepancy (obviously) and I'll think about what can be done.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

3. I'll be looking into that soon -- there were other things I had to get to first.

OK, I see what the issue was. It's fixed, and will be rolled into 8.0.2. Jonathan, if you want to try it before 8.0.2 is released, please email me and I'll send you a new BookendsCarbonLib.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jon]

2. I'll think about this. I tend to agree with you about usefulness, although I thought the current implementation is a bit more rational, if you see what I mean. What do other folks think?

I've modified the behavior of the listbox so that when the List View opens the right pane (list of references) gets the focus. I think I like it better that way, too.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Jonathan Adrain]

Well, that's some developer responsiveness, I gotta say. All of my yapping addressed within hours(!). If the list view sorting is a tradeoff with speed, I'll happily stick with the speed. Thanks a lot, Jon.

Jonathan

[jb]

Hi,
Edit:
I see now the preference for sorting with Unicode.
This will put authors' names with diacritics in the 'right' place.

Thanks, Jon.