Re: Xy under OS/2 (Was: running xy 3+ under windows xp - aarrgghhh!)

["Chris Madsen" cmadsen@xxxxxxxx]

There is no chance you will get TTG to revisit XyWrite code. I mourn this as
much as anyone. I continue to use SmartWords for my own writing, and still
have Xy4DOS hanging around. TTG, which might have renamed itself, now
consists of Kenny Frank and two old Xyquestrians working on a contractual
basis, demanding to be paid every week. But all that will come of that is a
revived LawOnTheWeb.com, "powered by SmartWords," which, as you know, is
XyWrite with database capabilities grafted onto it. Essentially, you get SW
on a web page, pulling together customized legal documents. TTG has no
interest in going forward with the desktop product. There is a small group
working to revive Wealth Transfer Planning, an estate planning package that
was TTG's premier product, which grafted custom menus developed in Clarion
(I think) onto SmartWords. The SW code has not changed since September 2001.
This is the product I continue to use. There are no plans to update it.
Before TTG closed its doors, I was working on rewriting the menu system into
32-bit code. The 32-bit engine was in good shape. But all that ended on
9/12/2001, when TTG shut down, owing most employees two months of pay, if
not more.

Chris

p.s., I lurk because I do not use XyShell and find that my solutions to
problems are often contraindicated because of it.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Holmgren" 
To: 
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2003 7:41 PM
Subject: Xy under OS/2 (Was: running xy 3+ under windows xp - aarrgghhh!)


> ** Reply to message from "Chris Madsen"  on Sun,
22
> Jun 2003 15:57:03 -0400
>
>
> > There never was an OS/2 version of Xy. You can pass this
> > along to the list if you want.
>
> You ought to know -- but I was told by several people that there was an
OS/2
> version, albeit maybe not an official one. Lemme see if I can find the
msgs...
>
> Andrew Glass, on Compuserve, 4 Jan 1995:
> "The Chicago Tribune and a few others are using a ported OS/2 version of
> XyWrite III+ that was hacked about five years ago. It is totally text
based and
> needs its own font drivers -- specific to the VGA layout (ugh!) It is
being
> marketed by CText, a fine company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan."
>
> Glass again, 19 Aug 1996, this List -- he works for Cox Newspapers, which
> presumably is the "we":
> "I believe the strongest development path would have been for TTG to
release a
> fully object-oriented, WPS-aware version for OS/2. As it stands, we're
using an
> old and clunky OS/2 port of III+ as our word processor. The vendor, CText,
will
> probably move the newspaper user base to Windows NT 4.0 and MS Word in
light of
> TTG's lack of response to their needs. An example: one needs to load a
specific
> font for each XyWrite display iteration."
>
> An earlier one, 25 Dec 1994:
> > every day I think of another way that a Xywrite platform for OS/2
> > could turn into the proverbial greatest thing.
>
> Raphael:
>
> Such a product already exists; having worked with it, I have urged the
current
> proprietor of TTG to issue beyond its limited OEM circulation in a few
> newsrooms, including the Chicago Tribune.
>
> -----------------------
>
> Plus, Chris, somebody else told me off-list that the Detroit Free Press
also
> had it. But -- what do I know.
>
> > I prefer to lurk.
>
> Our loss.
>
> -----------------------------
> Robert Holmgren
> holmgren@xxxxxxxx
> -----------------------------
>
>