You say three plus decades, which would put your Xy start back in the days of II or II Plus, so I assume you are using a DOS version. (?)
Two things come to mind first:
1) Keyboard error, either mechanical (like a stuck key) or in the encoding circuits (firmware); or
2) OS system “crash” or whatever you call a temporary glitch in the OS’s functioning that is giving you a run-away key-repeat for carriage returns.
I suppose you could have experienced a looping XPL program that did not exit properly, but I think you would have encountered that before.
All of the XyDOS versions I have used (from II+ to IV) have been remarkably stable and predictable as long as I did not try to exceed the memory and file-size limits.
It really does sound more like a “computer” problem than a “XyWrite” problem.
Myron
> On Nov 1, 2015, at 12:41 PM, Lynn Brenner
mailto:lynn.brenner.nyc@xxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> I've been using Xywrite daily for three plus decades, and this is a first:
>
> As I was typing additional thoughts into a file, the XY screen started shimmying and the text I was typing was replaced by a series of return arrows in the left margin. I quickly hit F5 Store, which of course may have been a mistake.
>
> On opening the file again, I find the first couple of paragraphs (written days ago) intact, but only that string of return arrows below them.
>
> What's odd is that in the directory, this file is now a whopping size -- 344127. The file was less than 12000 when I opened it this morning, and I hadn't even written a complete sentence before the screen began dancing and arrows replaced words. That suggests an enormous file, not just a few paragraphs followed by no more than a couple of pages of arrows.
>
> Can any of you shed light on what has happened?
>
> Lynn Brenner
>
>