[Papyrus-L] Sad Ending

[Charles Kadushin]

I too second those who (1) admire Dave and (2) think Papyrus to be one of 
the best soft-ware packages around. I also have been using it since DOS 
days. But it did appear to me that the handwriting was on the wall. I will 
support efforts to try to keep the produce alive by making some financial 
contribution. In the meantime, I have altered the Papyrus RIS OUT format so 
that it does a better (if not totally perfect) job of fitting in with a 
version of the Pro-Cite ris.cfg that I have also altered.

Specifically, the posted version of Papyrus' ris out format did not take 
account of the "RPRT" format and did not output ed. or eds. My version now 
does this, though I am sure further alterations might be useful, but my 
present version works for my data base.

Pro-Cite send me a new version of their Ris.cfg format for inputing to 
Pro-Cite. I have altered it so that ID is maintained (I file all reprints 
by number). After the Papyrus data base is input into Pro-Cite then Record 
ID is mapped onto "Call Number" (44). But you now have to look up your last 
call number to input the new one. And inputting stuff from the Web may 
require some manual work on the ID number.

As far as I can tell, Pro-Cite does not keep track of keywords or journals 
in the way Papyrus does and one can get into some trouble here. In general, 
Pro-Cite lacks Papyrus' "artificial intelligence" features, and is not 
nearly as flexible. It appears to be designed to work well with the Web in 
a variety of useful ways but is rather poor in terms of individually 
entering items. Finally, perhaps needless to say, other manuals simply do 
not have Dave's style.

Most of the people I now work with use Pro-Cite, so that is why I have 
chosen it. But I am definitely not happy!

If Dave wishes, I can send him my ris out format so that he can review it, 
or perhaps some one else wishes to do this, and then post it. I don't know 
what RSD policies are about posting some other program's format. Those 
lawyers again! But in this case, posting it would appear to work to 
Pro-Cite's advantage.

Once again, I wish we didn't have to do this.

Charles Kadushin <kadushin at brandeis.edu>



Best,

Charles Kadushin
Distinguished Scholar, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies
Brandeis University

Professor Emeritus, Sociology
Graduate Center, CUNY
212-865-4369