vDos for XyWrite

[Carl Distefano cld@xxxxxxxx]

Good news for XyWriters: vDos for XyWrite is here!

Thanks to the tireless efforts of list member Joaquφn De Prada and the
programming prowess of his friend Peter, a/k/a CatastrophicAnomaly, there is
now a fork of Jos Schaars's excellent vDos project that is compatible with
XyWrite 3 and XyWrite 4 for DOS. Call it "vDosXy".

vDos has been the preferred virtual environment for WordPerfect-DOS users
for some time, but has been unavailable to XyWriters due to incompatibility
with XyWrite's handling of the keyboard and other issues -- until now. I've
been putting vDosXy through its paces for nearly a week, and it's hands-down
the best virtualization option I've encountered. Try it for yourself; download
vDosXy here:

http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/VDosXy.zip

Among the many advantages of vDosXy are:

- Portability: No installation is required; just unzip VDosXy.zip into a
 directory of your choosing and command vDos.exe at the command prompt to get
 started. You'll be prompted to make a few edits to AUTOEXEC.TXT (the vDos
 counterpart to DOS's AUTOEXEC.BAT), and your customized version of Xy3 or
 Xy4 will be up and running in a matter of minutes.

- Seamless integration with the 64-bit host Windows OS:
 * Shared folders -- and the native XyWrite DIR command works!
 * Built-in Clipboard access
 * Shell to the 64-bit CMD.EXE command prompt directly from the Xy3 or Xy4
   CMline: DOS[/NV/Z/X] /C CMD.EXE /C START CMD.EXE
 * Launch any windows application or file from the Xy3 or Xy4 CMline, e.g.:
   DOS[/NV/Z/X] /C CMD.EXE /C START C:\vDOS\vDOS.pdf
 * Visually seamless DOS screen looks great as a desktop window or
   full-Screen (Alt-Enter toggle)

- Customizability: set your preferred DOS screen dimensions, color scheme
and screen fonts by editing CONFIG.TXT. Resize the DOS window on the
fly with Winkey-F11 and Winkey-F12


I'm excited about this project, and once you try it, I think you'll be, too.
Feedback will be much appreciated. And, once again, hearty thanks to
Joaquφn

and CatastrophicAnomaly for making vDosXy possible.


--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx