Subject: Re: bug#56475: 28.1.50; bibtex-parse-entry disregards @string substitutions

From: Roland Winkler <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2022 10:31:19 -0500

On Tue, Jul 12 2022, Ihor Radchenko wrote:
> I am wondering why bibtex-string-files is not documented inside the
> docstring of bibtex-expand-strings. Same for bibtex-expand-strings not
> being documented in bibtex-parse-entry.

I believe the situation is the other way round: bibtex-files and
bibtex-string-files are basic user variables for bibtex-mode and have
been around for 30+ years (much longer than I support bibtex.el).
bibtex-expand-strings is a small add-on in this context.

> I tried the following simple test:
>
> M-: (let ((bibtex-string-files `(,(buffer-file-name)))
> (bibtex-expand-strings t)) (bibtex-parse-entry))
>
> The journal field is still not handled: ("journal" . "jgr")

Try

M-: (let ((bibtex-string-files `(,(buffer-file-name)))
(bibtex-expand-strings t)) (bibtex-parse-entry t))

> Also, note that bibtex-string-files cannot help with situations when
> the BibTeX buffer does not have an associated file.

When does this happen?  To the best of my knowledge, this has never been
an issue for users of bibtex.el.