yes. my recommendation is for the mac. I really like it. read the documentation (which is short) and don't try to cut and paste a whole dissertation, and you will get out alive.

I used to have a perfectly functional multi clipboard on Windows 95. I think that it comes down to simplicity for the average user.

I have access to a large data set, that's available as a SGML-tagged text file. It's bibliographic citations, tagged, for example, pointy-bracket au Author's Name close pointy bracket au. They set up the tagging standards in the early 1990s, pretty much freehand, so the data is well-structured but does not follow a now-standard format for bibliographic data.

I'd like, ultimately, to get this data into Zotero. I can currently see a couple of ways to go forward: 1) somehow convert the data into an .ris structure (details on what this is: [link] ). Ris is a pretty basic file structure, using many of the same tags as what I've got. Or 2) get it into an even simpler tab-delimited text file, and upload it into EndNote which takes tab-delimited files (Zotero won't), and then export EndNote to Zotero (easy-peasy).

And advice on which would be easier, converting this SGML into .ris or tab-delimited text? Any advice on how I would actually do this? Is it writing a little script? Because I don't know how to do that right now, but I am interested in learning how, and it seems like this might be a first baby-steps project to learning a scripting language. Would anybody like to be my mentor for this?

Why did iCal get twee? And the address book isn't much better. Is there any way to get (back) away from the more literal visual metaphors? Dammit--what's the word for when the the other visual traits are brought into the design? The leather look, and all that?

Skeuomorphism.

Bingo. I need to start keeping a list of "words I always forget." That's really near the top of the list.

Somehow, I could not retain the word "antagonist" during high school, which fucked with both Biology and English Lit.

eta: I do remember reading that Steve Jobs was against skeuomorphic design, and that Lion wouldn't have gotten released on his watch. But that doesn't make sense, since he died after it was released. And I remember reading that some of these design elements aren't strictly skeuomorphic, but represented a unification with iOS.

Now I'm wondering if it was talking about Mountain Lion, but I am pretty sure they mentioned the leather on iCal and saying he'd have hated that--wouldn't that have been a decision made when he was still involved?

There's so much skeuomorphic design in Apple software products over the last few years it's hard to believe Steve had a problem with it.

flea, do you know what format your original file is? Something more specific than SGML; is it MODS perhaps?

I am finding the changes to iCal and the address book a bit startling, though. The leather graphic is cheesy and reminds me of wood laminate. Anti-quality. Using a book metaphor where there is one entry per page feels like a waste of space, even though I know it's not--but that's the cost of evoking that visual in that way.

I am pretty sure it is not MODS, Tom (but I do know what MODS is, go team me!). I am pretty sure it is "we made it up in 1992." What I have access to is huge .txt files, with hundreds of entries that look like this (replace () with pointy brackets mentally):

(au)von Koppenfels, Werner(/au)
(ti)KATASKOPOS oder der Blick von der Hohe: Ein menippeischer Streifzug(/ti)
(jl)A&A 47(/jl) [Yes, all the journal titles are abbreviated, but find and replace could fix this I guess.]
(yr)2001(/yr)
(pg)1-20(/pg)