%% \thispagestyle{empty}

\thispagestyle{empty}
\section*{Introduction}

  \index{bibliographic software}
Scientific publications are usually accompanied by a%
  \index{list of references} 
\emph{list of references}. The format of this list is usually
described in the ``Instructions for authors'' document 
issued by editorial boards of
scientific journals. The \texttt{References} software package
described in this document is aimed at
supporting writers of scientific literature to manage bibliographic references
in manuscripts. 
% It supports the \TeX/\LaTeX\ document preparation system
% including Bib\TeX{} and normal text processors. 
It supports normal text processors including OpenOffice.org/StarOffice Writer
and the \TeX/\LaTeX\ document preparation system
including Bib\TeX.
%%
\texttt{References} is able to create
Bib\TeX\ database files. Writing
\emph{\texttt{References} bibliographic format definitions} `by hand' is
easier than programming a bibliographic style using the language that comes
with Bib\TeX\footnote{however, the excellent \texttt{makebst} package is a
good alternative to writing Bib\TeX-styles}. The main goal for development of
\texttt{References} was to obtain a flexible tool which allows to create lists
of references in any format for journals in science and medicine and to create
correct citations in the text of manuscripts\footnote{\texttt{References}
follows most of the conventions of journals in these disciplines, so it does
not handle full first names of authors or editors, only their initials, but it
now allows to enter institutional authors}. It may also be used as a database
program which helps to organize a large collection of literature.

\texttt{References} communicates in a `portable' way with word processors and
text editors: it uses text files which -- as universal file format -- can be
imported by most text processors. Up to v4.2, \texttt{References} has been
implemented as console-application for \textbf{win32}. Beginning with v4.3, a 
\textbf{Linux port} has been added, 
from v4.3b on, Linux installations with utf-8 and latin-1 (ISO-8859-1)/latin-9
(ISO-8859-15) encoding of text files are supported.  For the new user it may
take some time to get accustomed to the console ``user interface'', but -- in
the hands of the program author -- \texttt{References} has proved to be an
efficient and reliable tool. As an introduction, the new user should follow
the first steps in the \textbf{tutorial chapter} (section \ref{sec:tutorial},
page \pageref{sec:tutorial}) of this manual and ``play'' for a while with the
software.  

Documentation of the software in this file (\texttt{refsdok.pdf}) is one of 
the most important components of this distribution.
% The author is aware that this documentation 
% is still incomplete. 
Information on deficiencies of this manual and
bug reports are always 
welcome\footnote{\texttt{kiev AT users DOT sourceforge DOT net}}.
Additional documentation and supplementary material: bibliographic format 
definitions, macros, step-by-step descriptions are made available on
the project homepage (\url{http://references.sourceforge.net}).

This version (4.3x) of \texttt{References} comes with \textbf{major internal
changes}: the internal representation of the data  
for both the win32 and Linux port has been changed to latin-1
(similar to the native encoding on win32 systems).
On the win32-console, output to the screen (and input from the keyboard) is
translated to/from ``codepage 850'', and on a Linux console with utf-8
encoding internal latin-1 encoded text is translated to/from utf-8. Details of
encoding issues related to \texttt{References} are explained in section
\ref{sec:CharacterSet}. 

Support for formatting bibliographic citations
in OpenOffice.org/StarOffice Writer\footnote{StarOffice v8 is provided as
well as
OpenOffice.org v2.0.x} and Microsoft Office (Word) documents is
supported on the project 
homepage\footnote{\url{http://references.sourceforge.net}}.
The project homepage also provides updates of this manual and links to useful
software including text editors and text processors.


\vspace{5ex}
V. K.\\
Kritzmow, August 2007



\clearpage

%%% Local Variables: ***
%%% mode:latex ***
%%% TeX-master: "refsdok.tex"  ***
%%% End: ***
