Re: NB Scholars Workstation

[Peregrine@xxxxxxxx]

In a message dated 11/8/1999 9:33:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, Anne Putnam
writes:

> Scholar's Workstation includes the word processor plus Orbis, Ibidem and
> Ibid. Plus. (excellent descriptions of each product deleted to conserve
bandwidth) ...

I'm new to this list, but have used XyWrite since 1985 or '86. DOS versions
only.
I'm downloading the NB demo as I write this, in spite of the scurrilous
remarks aimed squarely at Anne Putnam and her cohorts in recent days. Seems
to me that XyWrite users ought to have become accustomed to waiting for
upgrades that never come, and might be just a tad grateful that somebody is
making any effort in the direction of enhancing this great software. But
we're a surly bunch, or we'd have given up the quest for the Grail long ago.

I've never done much customization of XyWrite beyond save/gets and some .kbd
file modifications, but XPL makes sense to me in a way, so I hate to discard
it. Even more, I hate to trade it for Microsoft's cumbersome vision of a word
processor.

XyWrite seemed to run for me as well (though slower) on an 8086 as on a
Pentium. I've even loaded it on an old 286 Tandy laptop. I've run it in
straight MS-DOS 5.0 up to 6.22, and in DOS windows in Windows 3.1, Windows
for Workgroups, Win95, Win98 and Win NT.

So, my question for all you other diehards now is whether XyWrite and/or
NotaBene will work reliably in Linux. I have a 486-66 I'm thinking of
switching over just to wean myself from the Evil Empire, and I would really
get some use out of it if I could run something like the XyWrite I know and
love.

Also, to Anne Putnam in particular: I think NotaBene would benefit greatly
from posting your excellent descriptions (or something very much like them)
on the Web site. It's a nice looking site, but those specifics about the
software's capabilities and intentions are great sales points! If I can pull
together a hundred bucks in the next few weeks to take advantage of your
competitive upgrade, I probably will (regardless of the Linux issue). If I
could swing another hundred, I think I'd benefit most from that search engine
if it's anything near what you describe. Meanwhile, I'll look forward to
seeing what the demo has to offer.

Thanks,
Jeff Seager