🚀 go-pugleaf

OK, does anyone out there have any detailed documentations on postfix stack
language used in the bst files ?  Actually, I'm trying to find out the model
of computation used in this language -- i.e. is it closely follow that of
postscript, how are data defined and used, how many and what kind of stacks
are involved, model of executions, how are functions/routines defined and
used/called, how are functions/procedure/routines distinguished from operators
(that is, if there is any difference at all) ..etc...

Why do I need this info/doc ?  Well, I need to fix some "bugs" found in
apalike.bst (24-Jan-88 version) -- for instance, in @book and @incollections,
the address is separated from the publisher by a comma instead of a colon.
However, the comma is outputed not directly from the book or incollection
routines but perhaps from the output.nonull routine so somehow I need to
understand this language in order to understand this "program" (bst file)
properly so that I can fix this damn comma.

The man pages from bibtex provides some help but I still need more info on the
language (esp. it's model of computation) so that I won't fall into subtle
pitfalls.  I'm running that latest version of bibtex (0.99 I believe).

Any pointers welcomed.


--

Eric Ho  
Princeton University
eho@confidence.princeton.edu