Update
In order to better illustrate my question, I change the MWE for a more complete one and explain a bit further what I mean.
Context
Consider the following MWE:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[%
backend=biber,refsegment=section,
% defernumbers=true,
]{biblatex}
%
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}
%
\pagestyle{empty}
\AtBeginDocument{\footnotesize}
\AtBeginBibliography{\footnotesize}
\begin{document}
\section{First section}
\autocite{westfahl:space,herrmann,gillies}.
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography,segment=\therefsegment]
%
\section{Second section}
\autocite{glashow,aksin,gillies,matuz:doody}.
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography,segment=\therefsegment]
%
\printbibliography
\end{document}
Its compilation leads to this duplicated warning:
Package biblatex Warning: Setting 'defernumbers=true' recommended.
Advice not followed (defernumbers=false
)
The result is not so bad IMHO (sort order as expected):
Advice followed (defernumbers=true
)
Following the advice to set defernumbers=true
, no warning but a an esoteric order of the labels: sorting is by name but the labels are not sorted in ascending order (see below the following image a much more complete example).
Much more complete example
Below is a more complete example that better illustrates the troubles coming from the non ascending order of the labels.
Children play: just by reading the resulting document as if it would be printed, try to find details of reference e.g. [84]
cited in 2nd section :)
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[cm]{fullpage}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage[%
backend=biber,refsegment=section,
defernumbers=true,
]{biblatex}
%
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}
%
\pagestyle{empty}
\AtBeginDocument{\tiny}
\AtBeginBibliography{\tiny}
\begin{document}
\begin{multicols}{3}%
\section{First section}
\autocite{%
gaonkar,%
companion,%
nietzsche:ksa1,%
moore,%
cicero,%
augustine,%
britannica,%
maron,%
kullback:reprint,%
vizedom:related,%
markey,%
weinberg,%
wassenberg,%
augustine,%
almendro,%
knuth:ct:related,%
murray,%
sigfridsson,%
geer,%
westfahl:space,%
bertram,%
baez/article,%
kastenholz,%
shore,%
kullback:related,%
hammond,%
worman,%
knuth:ct:a,%
spiegelberg,%
knuth:ct:b,%
aksin,%
wilde,%
sorace,%
matuz:doody,%
vangennep:related,%
padhye,%
cicero,%
malinowski,%
baez/online,%
aristotle:anima,%
kullback:reprint,%
vangennep,%
nietzsche:historie,%
knuth:ct,%
kant:ku,%
piccato,%
gaonkar:in,%
piccato,%
sarfraz,%
glashow,%
massa,%
knuth:ct:e,%
itzhaki,%
jcg,%
angenendt,%
cms,%
gaonkar,%
knuth:ct:d,%
padhye,%
averroes/hercz,%
kant:kpv,%
moore,%
vazques-de-parga,%
nietzsche:ksa,%
chiu,%
geer,%
knuth:ct,%
reese,%
maron,%
knuth:ct:a,%
sigfridsson,%
knuth:ct:c,%
hyman,%
gonzalez,%
kant:kpv,%
gillies,%
aristotle:rhetoric,%
nussbaum,%
britannica,%
iliad,%
brandt,%
springer,%
knuth:ct:e,%
knuth:ct:related,%
westfahl:frontier,%
massa,%
baez/online,%
vangennep:trans,%
moore:related,%
jcg,%
nussbaum,%
}
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography,segment=\therefsegment,title=References
of section 1]
%
\section{Second section}
\autocite{%
averroes/bland,%
almendro,%
vangennep:related,%
murray,%
averroes/hercz,%
sarfraz,%
bertram,%
angenendt,%
knuth:ct:c,%
herrmann,%
gerhardt,%
companion,%
aristotle:anima,%
aristotle:rhetoric,%
baez/article,%
ctan,%
moraux,%
cms,%
spiegelberg,%
moore:related,%
doody,%
wassenberg,%
reese,%
matuz:doody,%
coleridge,%
ctan,%
salam,%
moraux,%
loh,%
vizedom:related,%
aristotle:poetics,%
malinowski,%
laufenberg,%
cotton,%
salam,%
aristotle:poetics,%
gaonkar:in,%
gonzalez,%
knuth:ct:b,%
glashow,%
aristotle:physics,%
nietzsche:ksa,%
nietzsche:historie,%
hammond,%
vangennep:trans,%
worman,%
westfahl:space,%
pines,%
weinberg,%
knuth:ct:d,%
westfahl:frontier,%
laufenberg,%
nietzsche:ksa1,%
kullback,%
yoon,%
chiu,%
kant:ku,%
vangennep,%
aristotle:physics,%
vazques-de-parga,%
sorace,%
yoon,%
kowalik,%
brandt,%
aksin,%
loh,%
doody,%
averroes/bland,%
itzhaki,%
kastenholz,%
hyman,%
shore,%
kullback:related,%
kowalik,%
kullback,%
jaffe,%
gerhardt,%
coleridge,%
herrmann,%
iliad,%
springer,%
cotton,%
markey,%
gillies,%
pines,%
wilde,%
averroes/hannes,%
averroes/hannes,%
jaffe,%
}
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography,segment=\therefsegment,title=References
of section 2]
%
\printbibliography
\end{multicols}
\end{document}
Question
Hence, we see defernumbers=true
possibly makes details of references very hard to find. So, what are the pros of defernumbers=true
?
defernumbers=true
the labels are assigned at the first printing in a bibliography command (that is the sub-bibliographies). That means that the sub-bibliographies are numbered continuously, but it disturbs the numbering (not the sorting!) in the global bibliography. – moewe Oct 4 '16 at 7:32defernumber
does. Especially if you have split bibliographies without a global list and no overlapping entries that appear in two bibliographies. If you have an entry that appears more often you're out of luck if you want it to have the same number all the time. If you have a global bibliography you'll also have trouble with the sorting. – moewe Oct 8 '16 at 18:22defernumbers
gives preferable results. I other situations both settings give sub-par results and it is of course your privilege to choose the result you like and to heed or ignore the warning. – moewe Oct 9 '16 at 7:46