BibTeX, biblatex and biber ⇒ The bibliography prints a * (star) on the first line.

[verbunk]

Hi Guys,

Question: When I call

\nocite{*}
\bibliographystyle{amsplain}
\bibliography{CV}

in my resume (using the res.cls class readily available on the web) I always get a * (star) in the output and then the publication list on the next line. I've checked the .bib file and using a simple case can't find anything that would cause this. It goes away if I don't call \biblio{} etc in my resume.tex. Anyone know how to fix?

Thanks!
-J

[daleif]

could you provide a minimal example please? (that we can just copy and paste to to our own systems to test it out, the less we have to type the more likely it is you get help

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi,

did you redefine \section or \chapter? This could cause the remaining * if the bibliography environment calls \section* or \chapter* as usual. In that case you could redefine \section* or \chapter*.

Stefan

[verbunk]

Hi Guys,

So it took a while to analyze the class file and you are right Stefan, it is redefining \section. I'm not sure where the problem is though. The offending file plus sample is attached. Think I could bug you to take a quick look? :S

Thanks for any assistance!
-joshua

[daleif]

res.cls is not particularly good

At the very end

Code: Select all

\let\section\@@section
\let\section*\@@section*

Earlier in the code \@@section is define to be either \unboxed@sectiontitle or \boxed@sectiontitle neither of which can handle a starred version.

As far as I know, \let\section* does not even make sense, so you might want to complain to who ever is maintaining res.cls

I would change res.cls and out comment that last line

and add this to the preamble of test123.tex

Code: Select all

\makeatletter
\renewenvironment{thebibliography}[1]
     {%\section*{\refname}% <--- outcommented
      \@mkboth{\MakeUppercase\refname}{\MakeUppercase\refname}%
      \list{\@biblabel{\@arabic\c@enumiv}}%
           {\settowidth\labelwidth{\@biblabel{#1}}%
            \leftmargin\labelwidth
            \advance\leftmargin\labelsep
            \@openbib@code
            \usecounter{enumiv}%
            \let\p@enumiv\@empty
            \renewcommand\theenumiv{\@arabic\c@enumiv}}%
      \sloppy
      \clubpenalty4000
      \@clubpenalty \clubpenalty
      \widowpenalty4000%
      \sfcode`\.\@m}
     {\def\@noitemerr
       {\@latex@warning{Empty `thebibliography' environment}}%
      \endlist}
\makeatother

[verbunk]

That did it! What a stubborn problem. I think I'll try and trim down the res.cls and make it suit my needs instead of trying to be all-in-one. Maybe I can make it a bit more elegant. (ha ha ha, probably not though)

I think the class file is a bit old so contacting the author is most likely out of the question. Can anyone recommend a good resource on how to make latex macros? I have Latex by Lamport which is pretty good but I think it's not really for messing with advanced features. I guess what I'd really like to do is write a class file to do exactly what I want (for the resume to start) without trying to fuss with something that doesn't quite do it.

-Joshua

[phi]

if you want to do advanced programming, you definitely need to know all the nasty TeX internals which LaTeX tries to hide. You can start with TeX by Topic by Victor Eijkhout. This describes the internals of the original TeX. Nowadays, most implementation incorporate eTeX and are based on pdfTeX, so you should read the eTeX and pdfTeX manuals, too. Then you should be able to understand the commented source codes of LaTeX itself (source2e.pdf) and most classes and packages. I think there is no real book for learning LaTeX programming—you learn it by reading what others have programmed.