Re: Long File Names for XyWrite

[Robert Holmgren holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to note from xywrite@xxxxxxxx Mon, 14 Jun 1999 12:33:41 -0400

> Other Question: what about working with W95 long filenames in XY 4/DOS?
> Anyway to do this?

What about it, indeed.

This is coming, but probably not until the Fall. We already have these facilities
for OS/2. They need to be beefed up a bit, made a little more flexible (I'd like
to reproduce _all_ of the functionality of the factory "dir call new abort read
save merge" commands, instead of the current 75%), and then ported to
other platforms. We're working on the mechanism of that right now, trying to devise
a "one size fits all" solution for the coding of programs, so that the only
platform-dependency is a single Helper program that's tailored to the OS (under
OS/2 presently, it's a program called O2.CMD). The theory is easy, implementing it
is a bit more difficult, for linguistic reasons that have nothing to do
with XyWrite, to wit: we've got to settle on a programming language to use, it's
got to be freeware, it's got to suit the programming capabilities of XyWriters
(i.e. keep it simple), and it's got to be available in at least four flavors (Unix,
OS/2, Dos16, and Win32) with the same syntax throughout. A tall order. We're
certainly open to ideas, too, if anyone has any -- just not BASIC, OK? I'm
basically allergic. But ultimately I'd like to see cross-platform portability of
all of the U2 routines that currently work under OS/2 only. The bad news (for you)
is that we'll probably do Linux first (because Linux reflects a great philosophy,
and comprises a community which we admire & support). As opposed to Windows.



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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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