using biblatex with res.cls

Question

I am having a problem getting biblatex to work with res.cls

I have successfully used biblatex using the article class to create a nice bibliography the way I want it to look. However, when I try and use it within the class res, I get a

! Package keyval Error: revisers undefined.

message.

In fact, this message appears simply by adding

\usepackage[firstinits=true, isbn=false, url=false,  doi=false, style=ieee, defernumbers=true, sorting=ydnt]{biblatex}

in the preamble.

Any ideas?

Here is a minimal example:

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\documentclass[overlapped,line,letterpaper]{res}

\usepackage{ifpdf}

\ifpdf
  \usepackage[pdftex]{hyperref}
\else
  \usepackage[hypertex]{hyperref}
\fi

\hypersetup{
  letterpaper,
  colorlinks,
  urlcolor=black,
  pdfpagemode=none,
  pdftitle={Curriculum Vitae},
  pdfauthor={Daniel L. Zelazo},
  pdfcreator={$ $Id: cv-us.tex,v 1.28 2006/12/12 22:53:52 jrblevin Exp $ $},
  pdfsubject={Curriculum Vitae},
  pdfkeywords={networked dynamic systems control optimization}
}

%%===========================================================================%%
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[american]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[firstinits=true, isbn=false, url=false,  doi=false, style=ieee, defernumbers=true, sorting=ydnt]{biblatex}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{nameref}
\addbibresource{dz_pubs_2011.bib}
\usepackage{eurosym}
\renewcommand{\labelitemiv}{$-$}
%%===========================================================================%%

\begin{document}

%---------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Document Specific Customizations

% Make lists without bullets and with no indentation
\setlength{\leftmargini}{0em}
\renewcommand{\labelitemi}{}

% Use large bold font for printed name at top of pages
\renewcommand{\namefont}{\large\textbf}

%---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\name{Daniel L. Zelazo}

\begin{resume}

\hspace{-37pt}\begin{ncolumn}{2}
  {\bf Research Associate \& Lecturer} & \\ 
  {\small Institute for Systems Theory \& Automatic Control} &\hfill {\small Phone: +49 711 685 67747} \\
  {\small University of Stuttgart }     &\hfill {\small Fax: +49 711 685 67735} \\
  {\small Pfaffenwaldring 9  }        &\hfill {\small {\tt daniel.zelazo@ist.uni-stuttgart.de}} \\
 {\small  70550 Stuttgart, Germany   }          &\hfill {\small {\tt \verb+http://www.ist.uni-stuttgart.de/~zelazo/+} }\end{ncolumn}

%---------------------------------------------------------------------------

\section{\bf {\large Education}}
\begin{ncolumn}{1}
  {\bf University of Washington} \hfill  Seattle, WA         \\
  {\bf PhD} \hfill September 2004 - September 2009 \\ 
  \\
  Department of Aeronautics \& Astronautics Engineering  \\
  Thesis: \emph{Graph-theoretic Methods for the Analysis and} \\\emph{Synthesis of Networked Dynamic Systems} \\
  Advisor:  Prof. Mehran Mesbahi      \\                 
\end{ncolumn}

%---------------------------------------------------------------------------


\section{\bf {\large Publications \& Patents}}
See attached list.

\nocite{*}

\printbibheading
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography,title={Letters},keyword=letter, prefixnumbers={L}]

\end{resume}

\end{document}

%%===========================================================================%%

for the dz_pubs_2011.bib file, the following should be sufficient:

@misc{Holland2011,
author = {Holland, Alex and Zelazo, Daniel},
title = {{Sensitivity Analysis in Control Versus Biology}},
howpublished = {Letter to the Editor of PLoS Biology regarding the 2009 PLoS Biol 7(1) e10000015 and e1000021 articles},
year = {2011},
keywords={letter}
}

Answer 1

You should avoid using such old and outdated classes.

The problem based on the macro \nofiles which is used by res.cls. This macro tell LaTeX no needing of .aux files. To work with bibliographies you need an aux file.

I recommend to change the document class. Otherwise you must edit the document class and comment the command \nofiles.

I used the following example for testing:

\listfiles
%\let\nofiles\relax
\documentclass{res}
\usepackage[firstinits=true, isbn=false, url=false,  doi=false, style=ieee, defernumbers=true, sorting=ydnt]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}
\begin{document}
\cite{ctan} and \cite{companion}
\printbibliography
\end{document}