What's the mode hook defined in `helm-bibtex` to conditionally activate it when AUCTeX's `LaTeX-mode` is called?

[hongyi-zhao]

I'm using the following configuration for helm-bibtex:

(use-package helm
  :demand t
  :config (require 'helm-autoloads))
(use-package helm-bibtex
  :demand t
  :init
  (setq
   ;;https://github.com/tmalsburg/helm-bibtex#insert-latex-cite-commands
   bibtex-completion-cite-prompt-for-optional-arguments nil)

  :bind-keymap
  ("<menu>" . helm-command-prefix)
  :bind
  (
   :map helm-command-map
   ("b" . helm-bibtex)
   ("B" . helm-bibtex-with-local-bibliography)
   ("n" . helm-bibtex-with-notes)
   ("<menu>" . helm-resume)
   )
  )

The above configuration will always enable the above packages during the starting process of Emacs, but I want to conditionally activate helm-bibtex when AUCTeX's LaTeX-mode is called and enabled.

For this purpose, it seems that the mode hook based method should be used, but I don't know what's the appropriate hooks defined in helm-bibtex which can help me to achieve this goal. Any tips will be appreciated.

Regards, Zhao

[tmalsburg]

Helm-bibtex doesn't have a global mode that can be activated/deactivated. It's generally available for use once it's loaded. Could you please explain why you'd want to activate it only in specific buffers? Helm-bibtex should not interfere with modes in other buffers, so I don't see what would be gained by deactivating it. And what would you like to happen when the user tries to use the helm-bibtex command in a buffer where helm-bibtex is not activated? Would you like to get an error message like Error: helm-bibtex not activated? If yes, why?

[hongyi-zhao]

My simple idea is that this package should only be used when preparing documents with LaTeX. Therefore, I have filed this issue.

[tmalsburg]

The purpose of this package is not just to support LaTeX authoring. I use it productively in many other scenarios. For instance, when a student asks me for the most important papers about topic X. To answer this, I start an e-mail, fire up helm-bibtex, select these papers, and then insert their references into the e-mail ("Insert reference" from action menu). Done.

If you don't want to use helm-bibtex outside LaTeX documents, the easiest solution is just to ignore it. No need to deactivate it, since it's not doing much anyway when you don't use it.

[hongyi-zhao]

Thank you for sharing your ideas and examples of usage scenarios. As a result, the :demand t should be used when using it via use-package.