Re: Why?

[yesss@xxxxxxxx]

	I can't get 3 to list the files in my main
	working directory. You don't care whether
	the DIR command works? I do; and I think
	others do, too. --Carl Distefano 

I don't like overquoting in replies any more than you do,
but omitting a reference, then misrepresenting it to make
me sound like a nitwit, abuses what otherwise would be
a courtesy.

In the only paragraph where I mentioned directories,
the point I was making was that different users have
different needs and the release of xyWrite you favor
doesn't necessarily meet every user's needs. Please
reread carefully my only mention of directories:

	"A directory with thousands of files is utterly
	inconceivable to me: I care as much about whether
	v3 lists such dirs smoothly as I care about whether
	v3 plays RealAudio clips sweetly."

I won't speculate on your motive in stretching that
to "You don't care whether the DIR command works,"
but I will point out that you are projecting if you
jump to the conclusion that because you keep dirs with
a huge number of files, everybody does. (I also asked
who has time for the you-said-this-no-I-said-that
parsing that protests generate. Boring.)

	My v3 .HLP file was last revised, let's
	see, on 3/22/2000 (not 10 years ago), and
	I regularly experience out-of-mem instability
	while editing that 234K file. That's in a
	very up-to-date DOS session that has, at
	startup (I quote MEM output here):

		650240 bytes total memory
		650240 bytes available for DOS
		620592 largest executable program size

	Granted, the problems typically arise with
	several other files open, but who needs to
	waste energy wondering when (not if) it's going
	to happen?

No wonder you experience xyWrite 3 memory problems!
My .HL3 file is 9473 bytes and that's a couple k
bigger than I'd like it to be. The best way I know
to destabilize the famously robust xyWrite 3 is a
big xpl-laden .HL3. (And, no, I don't have a zillion
itsybitsy xpl pgms instead; I have one screenful
of modular xpl--counting ALITTLE.HL3.) The people who
complain of regular xyWrite 3 crashes are invariably
the people who stuff .HL3 files with xpl frames.

	As for all that crap about "bashing" and
	"scorn" and "constantly [being] put on the
	defensive", nobody buys it, Annie, least
	of all you, and repeating it at regular
	intervals doesn't make it any more persuasive.
	The juvenile antics are all yours, and they
	are indeed a colossal waste of time.

I'll leave that for others to decide. My email
suggests that you could be wrong about that.

======================================= adpFisher  nyc