Re Portable XyWrite

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

I finally got a little time to test this, and have one question:
settings.dfl is nowhere mentioned or, apparently, referenced, and the
resulting setup has no settings.dfl. Is that simply because I forgot
that I had renamed my settings.dfl visible.dfl? (I have a couple of
versions, giving different screen color combinations, because
different color schemes are veryingly legible on different monitors.)
Or is it intended to avoid the use of settings.dfl altogether, given
the tendency to hard code paths in that (which, I understand, is what
must be avoided). If settings.dfl is not to be used, how should one go
about setting color schemes? The one in portable is a dim gray on
black, VERY hard on my eyes.

Another (easily fixable, but...) wrinkle:
Step 7 of Readme.1st says "Do NOT add the primary PRN file that you
customarily use and intend to use with Portable Xy4 -- it will be
added automatically (see Step 11), below)." So I didn't, but before
running PORTBILD.PM, I commanded Load HP4-PLUS.prn (my normal prn.,
chosen with PP, is, of course, PostGhst.prn. But without having
Ghostscript, that won't do. So I followed step 12 of readme.1st, which
says: "Make SURE you load the PRiNter file that you feel would be most
useful to you in a Rescue/Recovery situation. Remember: you will not
be likely to print in a Rescue situation, but you will require a PRN
file for proper formatting and visual appearance of documents. Use the
PRN with which you are most familiar/comfortable.") HP4-Plus will, I
find, work with most current Laser and DeskJets--more or less. But
then the portable setup (tempxy\prns) doesn't include HP4-Plus.prn,
nor is it loaded; VA/NV $prn yields generic.prn
Otherwise, it seems to work, but I have not tested it fully. Will put
it on my thumb drive and give it a workout on a couple of other boxes.

A purely theoretical question:
In Readme.1st there is a statement "2) A subdirectory immediately
below Editor's directory, named .\PORTABLE,
  is *RESERVED* to the use of PortableXy4."
Does that mean one should create such a directory? Or that portbild.pm
itself creates and then discards it? Because I find no such directory
in either the original, working Xy directory (on this system,
d:\xyw4dos) or on the temporary one in which PortableXy4.exe creates
one's portable setup.
But I don't mean to cavil. This is enormously useful, and once again
Robert has been public benefactor No. 1.
--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx