[Papyrus-L] Is this list still active

Sun Jan 16 18:28:28 EST 2022

So, I've been working with Papyrus on a Windows 10 computer, and thought I would share some thoughts.

The link that Jan provided is very useful.  There are detailed instructions, primarily for WPDOS users, which I am not. So, most of the details on the website can be ignored. I clicked on the "install" link for PC/Windows users, downloaded, and ran the installer. I ignored Windows "admonition" that I couldn't install the software by hitting 'enter'. It gave me a message "go ahead and install", and I said 'you bet'!.  I selected the offered options for the software to install that seemed relevant to me and moved through the installer program. Toward the end I started getting 'error' messages and just ignored them for no better reason than I didn't know what else to do!

At the end of the installation process, I had a vDOS plain DOS shortcut on my desktop!  I clicked on that and then went through various false starts until I remembered about working in a DOS environment, like, how to change directories!  I moved my Papyrus folder to the root directory of my C: \ Drive, changed to the C:\PAP directory and typed PAP - et voila, I was greeted with the familiar blue and yellow screen!

Everything seems to work. I can enter, search, group, list, and print search results to files.  Somethings are squirrely. The cursor moves around a lot, perhaps because I am reaching over my touch pad to type, and that may move the cursor around.  For example, to type my first name, Taber, it sometimes ends up as Terab.  I have to back space and try again.

Also, when I'm editing an entry or working with a list and a menu pops up, e.g., ignore, abort, edit if I appear to be entering a duplicate entry, the cursor moves back and forth with startling rapidity, making it very difficult to know if I'm selecting the desired option.  Not sure what that is about.

Nevertheless, I have access to my thousands of article entries. I started entering articles on old IBM PCs back when Papyrus first came out in the early 80s.  I'm a plant ecologist and remember the days when I would fill out postcards and request reprints (I'd also send them out) and enter them into Papyrus before filing them away.  I also did a lot of photocopying of journal articles and entered articles from journals that I used to subscribe to.

Who uses reprints anymore?  Everything is digital and downloadable pdfs. To reduce space and lugging around Bankers boxes filled with reprints - I moved a lot - I decided to recycle all of my photocopied articles. If I needed them, I could go to JStor, so I donated my journals to a field station.  I kept my 'true' reprints, those printed up by the journals that an author could purchase to distribute to colleagues, some of which date to the 1930's and '40's.  There's a history there I want to preserve, especially as some were signed copies from friends and colleagues.  I'm still on the lookout for reprints, and if any of you have reprints in the field of ecology that you want to share or don't want anymore, drop me an email!!

Even as I don't have hard copies of many of the entries in Papyrus, I can search my database and find what I need!  So, a big shout out to Jan for the suggestion and making Papyrus available to me again!!

Taber
________________________________
From: Papyrus-L <papyrus-l-bounces at ResearchSoftwareDesign.com> on behalf of John Kiernan <jkiernan at uwo.ca>
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2022 2:34 AM
To: Papyrus Discussion List <papyrus-l at researchsoftwaredesign.com>
Subject: Re: [Papyrus-L] Is this list still active

Gordon Scobie is right! Papyrus is indeed still excellent.

I use it on a desktop computer with the latest 32-bit version of Windows. All files are backed up, by way of memory sticks and a movable hard drive, to two laptops. The laptops, dammit, have 64-bit Windows. On one laptop I can run Papyrus with the 4DOS emulator, but I do this only to read from the database. When my desktop computer dies, all my Papyrus program files and other data should still be on two laptops, a movable hard drive and three memory sticks.

Thank you, Taber, for drawing attention to vDos.  It may be a better DOS emulator than 4DOS.

Best regards,  John.

J. A. Kiernan MB, ChB, PhD, DSc

Professor Emeritus, Anatomy and Cell Biology

University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

https://www.schulich.uwo.ca/anatomy/people/bios/emeriti/kiernan_john.html

Also  Secretary, Biological Stain Commission, Inc.

http://biostain.com

= = =

________________________________
From: Papyrus-L <papyrus-l-bounces at researchsoftwaredesign.com> on behalf of Gordon Scobie <scobieg09 at gmail.com>
Sent: January 13, 2022 8:40 PM
To: Papyrus Discussion List <papyrus-l at researchsoftwaredesign.com>
Subject: Re: [Papyrus-L] Is this list still active

Papyrus is excellent. Still use it after all these years.

Gordon Scobie
Edinburgh

On Fri, 14 Jan 2022, 1:38 am Armando Lopez, <alopezr57 at hotmail.com<mailto:alopezr57 at hotmail.com>> wrote:
Congratulations for reborn this list. I knew Papyrus and I think is the best software for bibliographic management. My question is, I have a MacBook laptop with M1 chip how can use Papyrus?

Enviado desde mi iPad

El 13 ene 2022, a la(s) 14:38, Taber Allison <tallison at awwi.org<mailto:tallison at awwi.org>> escribió:

Hello, Jan:

Thank you for your quick response. And, it has worked!!  I now can run Papyrus through the DOS window.  It took me awhile to remember how to use DOS.  When was the last time I used the change directory command!?

Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows

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