Problem
The documentation says that BibLaTeX and Biber data sources should be parseable because they share the general BibTeX syntax, but the suite does not define a concrete compatibility profile. That makes it easy to regress richer records while testing only traditional BibTeX entry types and fields.
The missing contract includes the @set support requested in #105, but is broader:
@xdata inheritance containers and xdata references;- BibLaTeX entry types such as
@online and @software;
- date ranges, UTF-8 values, related-entry fields, and entry sets;
- Biber data annotations and extended name forms; and
- entry-type and field names supplied by custom Biber data models.
Proposed contract
Add one synthetic, non-personal fixture and tests that require the default structural parser/writer to retain entry types, keys, field names, values, and source order across a canonical round trip. The parser should remain schema-agnostic: unknown types and fields are data and should not require a BibLaTeX dialect flag.
Document the boundary clearly. Structural preservation does not mean that this package validates a BibLaTeX data model, resolves @set or @xdata semantics, or interprets names, annotations, dates, and lists as typed values. Biber remains the semantic validator/processor.
The tests depend on preserving entry-type spelling as proposed in PR #570. Biber-style nested comments remain the separate parser feature tracked in #372 / PR #585.
Conversion between BibTeX and BibLaTeX should not be part of this change. Because the data models are not generally losslessly equivalent, conversion needs a later opt-in mapping profile with explicit loss reporting.
Problem
The documentation says that BibLaTeX and Biber data sources should be parseable because they share the general BibTeX syntax, but the suite does not define a concrete compatibility profile. That makes it easy to regress richer records while testing only traditional BibTeX entry types and fields.
The missing contract includes the
@setsupport requested in #105, but is broader:@xdatainheritance containers andxdatareferences;@onlineand@software;Proposed contract
Add one synthetic, non-personal fixture and tests that require the default structural parser/writer to retain entry types, keys, field names, values, and source order across a canonical round trip. The parser should remain schema-agnostic: unknown types and fields are data and should not require a BibLaTeX dialect flag.
Document the boundary clearly. Structural preservation does not mean that this package validates a BibLaTeX data model, resolves
@setor@xdatasemantics, or interprets names, annotations, dates, and lists as typed values. Biber remains the semantic validator/processor.The tests depend on preserving entry-type spelling as proposed in PR #570. Biber-style nested comments remain the separate parser feature tracked in #372 / PR #585.
Conversion between BibTeX and BibLaTeX should not be part of this change. Because the data models are not generally losslessly equivalent, conversion needs a later opt-in mapping profile with explicit loss reporting.