Maximum file-length; conversion to and from (MultiMate, H.T.M.L.).

["Michael Edwards" mje@xxxxxxxx]

                         Michael Edwards.

   Although I've been on this list a while, and posted occasionally, it's only
relatively recently that I have acquired a copy of XyWrite, version 4.017, with
an update to 4.018, which a list member sold me; and even now, I haven't done
much with it yet, due to various distractions. (Another list member privately
offered me an older version for sale, and perhaps I should apologize for not
replying some months ago, stating whether or not I wanted to take up that offer.
I can only say that this happened at a time when I seemed to be in a lot of
confusion, and fell terribly far behind with my e-mail.)
   Anyway, I have the program now, and I hope to take a closer look at it some
time soon, and to begin with I would like to ask a couple of simple questions,
please, if anyone can help.

   1. Is there a maximum length of file that a document can be, a length which
the program will not allow you to exceed, or over which working on the file
becomes unreliable?

   2. I remember reading (either in the XyWrite books that came with the
disks, or maybe in the online help) that you can convert to and from MultiMate,
a program in which I created thousands of pages of files over more than a
decade. I would be converting mainly from MultiMate to XyWrite, hardly ever the
other way around, since I want to gradually phase out my use of MultiMate. (I
wish I hadn't begun with that program; but this was at a time when a friend
introduced me to computers for the very first time, and I had no idea what
word-processing program it would be better to adopt, and that happened to be the
one.)
   Is the function for MultiMate-to-XyWrite conversion reliable, and are there
any known problems, or any known ways in which information can be lost in the
conversion? How about tabs, indents, foreign-language characters, pagination,
and the like? Graphics characters, like those line-drawing ASCII characters you
use to create boxes around text? (MultiMate encodes those in its own way,
rather than just using the ASCII characters straight.) Are very long files
likely to cause any special problem? ("Very long" in MultiMate means close to
131,072 bytes, the absolute maximum length of a MultiMate file. It's equal to
about 27 pages with 65-line pages and 80-character lines.)

   3. I assume the program doesn't come with any utilities that understand
H.T.M.L. or convert to or from it, because I wouldn't think H.T.M.L. even
existed when XyWrite was produced. But are there any other programs that
convert an XyWrite file to H.T.M.L. or vice-versa, and are they reliable? This
is a conversion I might want to do in both directions, especially if I want to
write pages for my web site in XyWrite. (Currently I use WordPad, with no
H.T.M.L. editors or anything like that.)
   Can you even write your own XyWrite programs to do such conversions
yourself? Obviously it will be a long time before I get into that area, if
ever, and I might need a book to help me, such as that one I've seen mentioned
on this list called "XyWrite Revealed", by Herb Tyson, which I believe covers
programming well. (If anyone has one to spare, I would be eager to buy a copy.)

   Thanks for any information anyone might have on these questions.

             Regards,
             Michael Edwards.


P.S.
   I've been told you pronounce "XyWrite" as "Zy-Write", not "X Y
Write". Is
this true?
   I guess it would make sense; but in the beginning I assumed the X and Y
were like separate capital letters, which you would pronounce separately like a
person's initials - but it appears not to be so.