RFC: next generation of BibFormat

["Jerome Caffaro" <Jerome.Caffaro@xxxxxxx>]

Hello:

BibFormat, the output formatting system in CDSware is about to change!

As you might know, we try to get rid of dependencies on PHP in
CDSware. BibFormat is one of the last modules still written in PHP.
We have now rewritten it in Python, improving its features.
A technical draft overview of the new BibFormat is available at:

   http://cdsware.cern.ch/tmp/bibformat_in_python_20060609.txt

We plan to deploy the new BibFormat in around August 2006.
A migration kit from the old PHP-based BibFormat to the new Python-based
BibFormat will be provided, although it cannot automatically handle
all the situations (e.g. PHP in UDFs).

We would therefore like to know about your usage of the current
PHP-based BibFormat and your possibly-advanced customizations you may
have carried out, so that we can prepare the migration to be as smooth
as possible.  Please read the questions below and send us your answers
and comments:

1. What kind of formats do you have in your CDSware installation?
   [ ] Only the original provided formats
   [ ] Originally provided demo formats, with small style
       modifications (to make the text italic or bold, to include
       new $799 tag or a subfield, etc)
   [ ] Originally provided demo formats, with important style
       modifications (defined many new nested subformats, used
       heavily forall() and if() and other specifics of the
       formatting language)
   [ ] Completely customized formats, written new behaviours, used
       many conditions in behaviours, used many UDFs in formats such
       as LIMW_L()
   [ ] Completely customized formats, written several new UDF
       functions in PHP, used different input extraction rules than
       DEFAULT

2. Are you interested in beta-testing your formats with the new
   BibFormat in Python?
   [ ] Yes, I'll send you my formats by email in a week or two
   [ ] Yes, I'd like to install it on my test site to play with it myself
   [ ] Maybe later
   [ ] No

Please send your answers, comments and suggestions either publicly
to this list or privately to the CDS Development Team.

Thank you for participating!

      - CDS Development Team
         <cds.support@xxxxxxx>
         <http://cdsware.cern.ch/>