Re: XYWrite as a neat thing

[Daniel Say say@xxxxxxxx]

" ----- Original Message -----
" From: "Leslie Bialler" 
" To: 
" Subject: Re: Netscape, XyWrite, and the Media
" > > I use XyWrite because it works, and the publishers I wrote for in the
" 80s
" > > used it. I use MS products because they work, and current customers and
" > > business contacts use them. We make our software decisions based on
" > > convenience and self-interest, not a political agenda. (We're running a
" > > micro-business. I wish we had the luxury to think about whether or not a
" > > piece of software dovetailed with our worldview.)
" >
"Mike Shupp wrote
" But some things work BETTER than others. Working with XyWrite, I am
" continually impressed by how well it works-- how "neat" it all is, how
" sensibly programmed, etc. MS applications, on the other hand, leave me
" chiefly conscious of how poorly programmed they are and how much is
" being accomplished by brute strength (and program bloat) rather than through
" intelligent design. Operating with XyWrite is like driving a sports car
" across
" country; with MS software, the experience is akin to driving a garbage truck
" with a defective transmission and an out-of-tune engine.
----                          
 But hardware is catching up to the (older) Windows  
 software, but Win2K ups the ante again.        
                            
 Still, while you may regard XyWrite as a "neat" thing 
 (The 'Martha' would say it's a 'good thing'), that  
 is because you've changed the key-bindings a la emacs 
 to do your bidding.                  
                            
 How many people used Xywrite out of the box without  
 modification? Does anyone still use only the default 
 keys of XYwrite/Notabene?               
                            
 (A fault I find with the latter is that the manual  
 is all about which keystrokes, while when I got    
 XyWrite I quickly changed the keys to do what I wanted
 or had been used to (Pc-Write 2.7, and Chiwriter) so 
 that 'production' didn't fall, and I relied on functions
 not keystrokes.)

 I'm sure that for some people XyWrite was just one of many
 text-processors (It doesn't know words) that they used over
 time.

 We like Xywrite, but are forced to use Windows Edit and other
 tools such as Write, Notepad, etc. on others' computers for
 some work.

 I'd say that Notabene made an attempt to be a writer's tool
 with the addition of linked tools such as Tabula, Orbis, Ibid,
 if you are creative enough to use them in non-bibliographic
 ways, as people use Lotus Agenda in ways that are not business
 and work groups related.

 It's a neat thing to some, and a chore to others.

						Daniel Say