Re: Xywrite in Linux, using either Dosbox or Dosemu

[Lisa Kleinholz lkleinholz@xxxxxxxx]

I don't use any heavy duty XPL programs, just a few (shamefully
admitted) saveget programs that are great time savers. (How does
anybody edit text in Word?)

Sorting a large file (1000-2000 lines) is a hair slower on the Mac in
DosBox than it is on my old computer running DOS (Gateway circa 1992--a
dinosaur). It is instant on the DOS computer, and a bit slower
(seconds?) on the Mac. I don't do anything fancy via U2. It's loaded,
but I haven't done any testing, as I am on constant deadline and rarely
have time to experiment.

Conversion: in Xy, change all italic markers into _, all bold into *,
then open the file in Word (as MS-DOS tex), copy/paste into Word file,
and run autoformat. I keep Word templates for the fairly simple
formatting I need.

I deliver everything now by e-mail in Word, so even things I create in
Xy on my old DOS computer, gets ported, via floppy disk, into Word on
the MacBook, which can't be beat for wireless web access and ease of
use.

XyWrite works for me as a writing, indexing, text editing program. For
any heavy-duty formating and printing, I pull the text into Word and
play with it.

The MacBook has become a great pleasure. As they say, it just works.
The auxiliary programs that come with it are fine for my limited needs
-- Calendar, Addresses, etc. I found a nice information management
program called DevonThinkPro that replaces my old Windows information
program. Plus I can save anything as a pdf, including stuff off the Web
via print as PDF. It came that way; I didn't have to install, download,
read manuals -- nothing. Photo handling, iTunes, iPod...all that good
stuff has changed my recreational life and made tweaking my web site
and blogging easier.

My most recent novel (still making the rounds, alas) was written in Xy,
ported onto the MacBook and into Word, where I formatted it, then saved
and e-mailed as a pdf to my agent.

I didn't configure DosBox myself. My PC computer genius did it for me
-- after the local Mac people totally screwed it up. Cost me about
$100 (for the PC guy, after more wasted on Mac people who were
clueless) and saved me countless hours and tears. I did have to change
settings to allow control, alt and other function-key combinations to
work without interruption but that wasn't too difficult.


--- Harry Binswanger  wrote:
> Two follow-up questions: 1. how fast is it? (do you use
> any
> heavy-duty XPL programs that take a noticeable time to run?) 2. What
> means
> do you use to convert from Xy to Word?
>
>
> Harry Binswanger
> hb@xxxxxxxx
>
>