In which R. Tenenbaum, seizing upon this statement of Leslie Bialler: > > >. . . But the Tech Group would probably sue your butt off if you tried > >to do that w/o their permission, which they'd probably not grant. Can't > >say that I I'd blame them, either. > goes on to make certain assertions, assumptions, and declarations that provoke further comments on the part of L. Bialler. To wit: RT: > I hold TTG personally responsible for most of what's wrong in the > world. LB: You are _not_ charming when you're being grandiose. AND SO FORTH: > > What's disinctively copyrightable about Xywrite? The command line? > Hardly. The mnemonics? Arguably. The double-chevroned formatting > markers? Probably. I would imagine the look and feel is copyrightable. Other than that, I could not possibly say, being neither a lawyer nor fat. And the cost of defending oneself against a suit, even if one prevailed in the end, would not be inconsiderable. So I guess the would-be developer of the XyWrite emulator would have to ask himself this question: "Do you feel lucky?" > > The secret to doing this, I believe, would be improving that which has > been begging to be improved about *something like Xywrite* while > retaining what makes it so good. > Unclear. You wish to create "something like XyWrite" that would contain improvements while retaining what makes it good. That about it? If so, I vote yea, and without objection ask permission to move on. > Let's take for example, the chevrons, which long ago should have been > got rid of in favor of SGML-functional delimiters. Really? What do you imagine would be gained by this procedure? > To me what > distinguishes Xy -- even more than the command line, or even its > splendid customizability -- is the ability to edit and review in either > expanded or regular view. SGML and its niece, HTML, are in a way > knockoffs of Xy/Atex formatting. A dubious statement. One might argue more profitably (although I would prefer not to) that SGML/HTML might well have adopted XyWrite's "format stays until replaced by next one" system rather than the clumsier.blahblahblahblahyaddayaddayadda
all work and no play makes jack a dull boy
that SGML does in fact require. > Maybe the thing could turn into the > premier HTML composing tool. A simple XPL routine can handle that chore. One need only replace XyWrite ≪US≫ tags and ≪MDLL≫ tags with the proper SGML tags, taking into account that eachmust be cancelled by an appropriate . Such a routine can be accomplished with the workmanlike string of CI's, although with time and the river flowing more elegant XPL solutions can doubtless be achieved. > Of course, what's essential for our > purposes is that it remain text-oriented. > Of course. > It should be everything like Xywrite (fast, with a comprehensive macro > language, ideally guaranteeing simple conversion from XPL). It should > be fast and it should be cross-platform (ie, Java). A nice idea. > And it should be > open source. Perhaps. > Besides, whoever made such an animal could give it away > and still make a fortune A rather paradoxical assertion. > -- might stand a chance of bringing us back to > ascii where we belong. And make the world a better place. > I assume this is meant as hyperbole. -- Leslie Bialler Columbia University Press lb136@xxxxxxxx