Re: A Real puzzler

[Frank Brownlow fbrownlo@xxxxxxxx]

First, thanks for the information re. producing RTF files with U2--that
kind of information supplies one of the reasons why I wanted to know if
U2 worked with Signature files.
I didn't intend my question to produce this heat. I suppose it's all a
question of who "us" covers. Some of "us" enjoy messing about in the
engine rooms of Xy because Xy, like a nice old sports car, invites that
kind of tinkering. Some of "us" use Xy because it's the best
word-processor for writers. But just as some of "us" liked sports cars,
and drove them very well without knowing a whole lot about tuning the
engine, so they/we enjoy using Xy, and do it pretty well, without
knowing an awful lot about the language it's written in. In this present
discussion, apparently the writers use the graphics view feature of the
program with no problem at all, whereas the mechanics encounter all
sorts of problems. The whole thread started because I wanted to know
why one particular computer was refusing the command, and I still don't
know, just as I don't know whether U2 works with Signature, tho' I
gather it probably doesn't. Rude remarks about Signature and novices
don't answer the questions.

Frank Brownlow

Robert Holmgren wrote:
** Reply to message from Frank Brownlow 
on Sat, 14 Jul 2007 14:48:46 -0400

Exactly. Shift-F8 is the better way into graphics view.
 

Better than what, exactly? Shift-F8 in your KBD file is just
function XH (close menus, if they are open), function WZ (toggle
into VGA graphics) -- whether you do that with a keystroke in a
standard (apparently unmodified) keyboard file, or you do it
manually on the command line, makes zero difference. When
people refer to actions by their (more or less arbitrary)
*assignment* in a keyboard file rather than the command(s)
issued by that keystroke, it signifies two things to me: 1)
this person doesn't customize, and indeed assumes that nobody
else does either, that we all just "know" what Shift-F8 does by
force of habit (absurd! Most of us use XyWrite precisely
because it is customizable! Shift-F8 is function MoVe in my KBD
file); and 2) this person doesn't know what the actual commands
are, or, probably, what they do. One pitches the level of the
discussion accordingly -- at novice level!

I think some of you guys fiddle around too
much trying to tweak the programme and don't
do all that much writing with the programme.
The programme is so confused with all of the
tweaking that it derails now and then.
 

Could you amplify how "the program is derailed"?
Nobody holds a gun to your head, insisting that you install or
use any tweak. "Derail" is not a diagnostic term, and conveys
nothing useful. "Overloads the Save/Get buffer" would be
diagnostic, for example.

How would doing more writing and less tweaking help (assuming we
don't do much)?

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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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