ORPAL

Review (Using Thinkpad A31 with Windows XP SP2) Although I have given Orpal the "thumbs down" this is mainly because the program just doesn't work properly at present. Something appears to be wrong with the installation file for v3.0.1. The buttons for "New" and "Manual PDF" do not work on the "Getting Started" screen that comes up immediately after the installation process is finished. After pressing "New" one receives a Runtime Package Error: "Missing Master Database File, please reinstall." The program then has to be closed down, with the following message: "Can't call method "destroy_STH on an undefined value at main.pl line 199." Further reinstallations do not sort these problems out. The prior installation file is for v2.51. Although this installed with no problems, the program was very flaky. Even pressing a menu item could on occasion crash the whole program, often making further use of the program impossible until it had been uninstalled and reinstalled. This is a pity as the program seems well-thought out and well-presented. Unlike many sourceforge projects the developer has made a number of helpful annotated screenshots available, although the pdf manual could do with a more detailed "getting started" text to go with them. Because of program instability I was unable to explore it thoroughly. The feature for parsing APA plain-text references, however, looked particularly interesting and useful. I hope the developer is able to sort out the current problems. Maybe having a forum and inviting potential users to comment would help. At the moment there seems to be little in the way of communication between developer and users despite the number of downloads.