How to get a bibliography from biblatex?

Question

I attempt to understand biblatex and try to get Rich Thomason's bibliography, http://web.eecs.umich.edu/~rthomaso/bibs/index.html, to work. Here is my MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{051916rht.bib}
\begin{document}
Will this be bibliographised? ~\cite{aaker:1981a}.
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Unfortunately this does not work.

Here are some bib-entries from Thomason's large file:

@book{ aaker:1981a,
  author = {David A. Aaker},
  title = {Multivariate Analysis in Marketing},
  edition = {2},
  publisher = {The Scientific Press},
  year = {1981},
  address = {Palo Alto},
  topic = {multivariate-statistics;market-research;}
 }

@incollection{ abb-etal:1996a,
  author = {Bernd Abb and Carsten G\"unther and Michael Herweg and Kai
            Lebeth and Claudia Maienborn and Andrea Schopp},
  title = {Incremental Grammatical Encoding---An Outline of the
        Synphonics Formulator},
  booktitle = {Trends in Natural Language Generation, An Artificial
        Intelligence Perspective, Fourth {E}uropean Workshop,
        {EWNLG} '93, Pisa, Italy, April 28-30, 1993, Selected
        Papers},
  publisher = {Springer-Verlag},
  series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science},
  volume = {1036},
  year = {1996},
  editor = {Giovanni Adorni and Michael Zock},
  pages = {277--299},
  address = {New York},
  topic = {nl-generation;nl-realization;}
  }

@inproceedings{ abbate-thiel_u:2003a,
  author = {Marcello L'Abbate and Ulrich Thiel},
  title = {The Use of Contextual Information in a Proactivity Model
        for Conversational Agents},
  booktitle = {Modeling and Using Context: Fourth International and
    Interdisciplinary Conference, Context 2003},
  publisher = {Springer-Verlag},
  year = {2003},
  editor = {Patrick Blackburn and Chiara Ghidini and Roy M. Turner
    and Fausto Giunchiglia},
  pages = {459--466},
  address = {Berlin},
  topic = {context;HCI;}
  }

@unpublished{ abbott_b:1974a,
  author = {Barbara Abbott},
  title = {Some Problems in Giving an Adequate Model-Theoretical
    Account of {CAUSE}},
  year = {1974},
  rtnote = {In RHT collection.  Judging from a note attached, it may
    have been published in BLS 3, 1975.  Check this out.},
  note = {Unpublished manuscript.},
  topic = {causality;}
  }

@unpublished{ abbott_b:1974b,
  author = {Barbara Abbott},
  title = {Some Remarks Concerning {H}intikka's Theory of Propositional
    Attitudes},
  year = {1974},
  rtnote = {In RHT collection.},
  note = {Unpublished manuscript.},
  topic = {propositional-attitudes;}
  }

@unpublished{ abbott_b:1975a,
  author = {Barbara Abbott},
  title = {Remarks on `Belief-Contexts'\,},
  year = {1975},
  rtnote = {In RHT collection.},
  note = {Unpublished manuscript.},
  topic = {propositional-attitudes;}
  }

@phdthesis{ abbott_b:1976a,
  author = {Barbara Abbott},
  title = {A Study of Referential Opacity},
  school = {Linguistics Department, University of California at Berkeley},
  year = {1976},
  type = {Ph.{D}. Dissertation},
  address = {Berkeley, California},
  rtnote = {In RHT collection.  LLP authored shelves.},
  missinginfo = {Date is a guess},
  topic = {intensionality;}
 }

I believe the errors occur because Thomason's bibliography is not always compatible with biblatex. If so, this is unfortunate because Thomason's bibliography is very useful.

Answer 1

Well, following your given link one get the following screen:

For me it is very clear that this bibliography is/was build for bibtex and not for biblatex and/or biber.

Now it seems that this 8 MB (sic!) great bibliography contains error as you can see in your cited error message in your comment:

syntax error: found ";", expected end of entry ("}" or ")") (skipping to next "@")

In bibtex syntax you need to end an entry field with an , and not with an ;, that means that is clearly a bug in that file (can you please add the related bib entry to your question, too -- I do not want to download such 8MB file ...)

Then let us have a look to one bib entry:

@unpublished{abbott_b:1974a,
  author = {Barbara Abbott},
  title  = {Some Problems in Giving an Adequate Model-Theoretical
            Account of {CAUSE}},
  year   = {1974},
  rtnote = {In RHT collection.  Judging from a note attached, it may
            have been published in BLS 3, 1975.  Check this out.},
  note   = {Unpublished manuscript.},
  topic  = {causality;}
}

The fields rtnote and topic are not standard fields for bibtex as far as I know. (Or there is a special bibliographystyle handling this fields I did not find mentioned on the web page.)

To be able to find all errors in that bib file you should first test the file with \nocite{*} and bibtex ... (There is an answer of mine how to do that, but at the moment I can not find it :-( )

If you want to use the advantages of biblatex/biber you have to change some field names and values in this bibtex file. Please have a closer look to this question and its answers to learn what have to be changed. You also have to think about the fields rtnote and topic how to rename them, perhaps keywords for topic or to create a special handling for this fields with biblatex ...

However, that means you have to rework each bib entry in the original bib file to make it best usable with biblatex/biber. That -- indeed -- will be a lot of work ...

Or, if you need only some bib entries of this file, copy them into a new bib file and prepare it for the usage of biblatex/biber as mentioned above ...

Conclusion:

The linked bib file seems to contain errors which has to be corrected and was made for the usage with bibtex. It has to be changed to use the advantages biblatex/biber offered you ...

Conclusion 2:

To start learning biblatex/biber better take a short bib file from one of your old projects and play with it to change it to get the advantages of biblatex/biber ...

BTW:

With the following mwe (your given bib entrys and a little bit changed code to get all entries printed, copy it and name it mwe.tex in a new directory for testing):

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@book{aaker:1981a,
  author    = {David A. Aaker},
  title     = {Multivariate Analysis in Marketing},
  edition   = {2},
  publisher = {The Scientific Press},
  year      = {1981},
  address   = {Palo Alto},
  topic     = {multivariate-statistics;market-research;}
}

@incollection{abb-etal:1996a,
  author = {Bernd Abb and Carsten G\"unther and Michael Herweg and Kai
            Lebeth and Claudia Maienborn and Andrea Schopp},
  title = {Incremental Grammatical Encoding---An Outline of the
        Synphonics Formulator},
  booktitle = {Trends in Natural Language Generation, An Artificial
        Intelligence Perspective, Fourth {E}uropean Workshop,
        {EWNLG} '93, Pisa, Italy, April 28-30, 1993, Selected
        Papers},
  publisher = {Springer-Verlag},
  series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science},
  volume = {1036},
  year = {1996},
  editor = {Giovanni Adorni and Michael Zock},
  pages = {277--299},
  address = {New York},
  topic = {nl-generation;nl-realization;}
  }

@inproceedings{abbate-thiel_u:2003a,
  author = {Marcello L'Abbate and Ulrich Thiel},
  title = {The Use of Contextual Information in a Proactivity Model
        for Conversational Agents},
  booktitle = {Modeling and Using Context: Fourth International and
    Interdisciplinary Conference, Context 2003},
  publisher = {Springer-Verlag},
  year = {2003},
  editor = {Patrick Blackburn and Chiara Ghidini and Roy M. Turner
    and Fausto Giunchiglia},
  pages = {459--466},
  address = {Berlin},
  topic = {context;HCI;}
  }

@unpublished{abbott_b:1974a,
  author = {Barbara Abbott},
  title = {Some Problems in Giving an Adequate Model-Theoretical
    Account of {CAUSE}},
  year = {1974},
  rtnote = {In RHT collection.  Judging from a note attached, it may
    have been published in BLS 3, 1975.  Check this out.},
  note = {Unpublished manuscript.},
  topic = {causality;}
  }

@unpublished{abbott_b:1974b,
  author = {Barbara Abbott},
  title = {Some Remarks Concerning {H}intikka's Theory of Propositional
    Attitudes},
  year = {1974},
  rtnote = {In RHT collection.},
  note = {Unpublished manuscript.},
  topic = {propositional-attitudes;}
  }

@unpublished{abbott_b:1975a,
  author = {Barbara Abbott},
  title = {Remarks on `Belief-Contexts'\,},
  year = {1975},
  rtnote = {In RHT collection.},
  note = {Unpublished manuscript.},
  topic = {propositional-attitudes;}
  }

@phdthesis{abbott_b:1976a,
  author = {Barbara Abbott},
  title = {A Study of Referential Opacity},
  school = {Linguistics Department, University of California at Berkeley},
  year = {1976},
  type = {Ph.{D}. Dissertation},
  address = {Berkeley, California},
  rtnote = {In RHT collection.  LLP authored shelves.},
  missinginfo = {Date is a guess},
  topic = {intensionality;}
 }
\end{filecontents*}


\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}


\begin{document}
Will this be bibliographised?~\cite{aaker:1981a}. 
\nocite{*} % <=========================== to get all bib entries printed

\printbibliography
\end{document}

you get following result (see, that fields rtnote and topic are not handled!):

compiled with no error message and one warning (resulting from the usage of package filecontents) ...