Tested

Only tested on OSX 10.8 with the following dependent packages:

• requests v0.14.1
• feedparser v5.1.3
• docopt v0.6.1
• nltk v2.0.4

Dependencies

pip install requests
pip install feedparser
pip install docopt
pip install nltk

Installation

• Update the options at the top of config.py to suit your preferences (See: Options)

Usage

arXiv Search

Usage:
arxiv.py id <arxiv_id> [--abstract] [--bib | --url | --pdf]
arxiv.py search <query> [--author=<author>] [--category=<category>] [--period=<period>] [--limit=<limit>] [--score=<score>] [--abstract] [--bib | --url | --pdf]
arxiv.py new [--author=<author>] [--category=<category>] [--period=<period>] [--limit=<limit>] [--score=<score>] [--abstract] [--bib | --url | --pdf]
arxiv.py bib <arxiv_id>
arxiv.py url <arxiv_id>
arxiv.py pdf <arxiv_id>

Options:
arxiv_id                      The ID of an arXiv paper 
query                         A query string to search arXiv
url, --url                    Opens the following arXiv id as a URL
pdf, --pdf                    Opens the following arXiv id as a PDF
bib, --bib                    Will print out bibtex entry for each matching result
--category=<category>         The category to restrict searches to
--author=<author>             The author to restrict searches to
--limit=<limit>               The maximum number of results to retrieve
--score=<score>               The score cutoff for the display of papers [default: 0]
--period=<period>             The days into the past to retrieve results for 
--abstract                    Will print out the abstract for each matching result

Options (config.py)

# Whether or not you use BibDesk to handle your references (will automatically
# export BibTex references into the currently open BibDesk bilbiography)
USE_BIBDESK = True

# The default categories to search if no other categories are specified
DEFAULT_CATEGORIES = ['quant-ph']

# Whether or not to include the abstract in exported BibTex references
INC_ABSTRACT = True

# The number of results to return if no number is specified
DEFAULT_LIMIT = 100

# The software to use to 'open' a URL. Try "open" for OSX, "gnome-open" for
# Linux or "cmd /c start" for Windows. Commands for your specific setup may
# need to be determined.
OPEN_SOFTWARE = "open"

# A Python .format() string representing how results will be formatted
OUTPUT_FORMAT = "{i:<6} {date} ({arxiv_id}) | {score} | {cate} | {mark}{title}{mark}"

# Keywords for scoring purposes. Keyword/Phrase: Score.
KEYWORDS = {
    'topological': 10, 
    'qubit': 5, 
    'qec': 20,
    'fault tolerant': 25,
    'error correction': 20,
    'error': 5,
}

Future Prospects

• Automatically generate scoring keywords and weights based on a provided .bib file of references.
• Improve and de-hackify the arXiv journal_ref parsing