Re: Nota Bene

[Dorothy Day day@xxxxxxxx]

On Sat, 1 Jun 2002, Robert Holmgren wrote:

> Here's my take: If you monitor the NB mail list, you will find that NB
> users are extremely non-technical, and utterly ignorant of how to
> modify the operation of the program. The few XPL programs that
> experimenters have designed for it are, well, sub-par (to be
> charitable about it). They have been supplied with zero information
> about how NB works, so I guess you can't expect much. Overwhelmingly,
> NB users simply accept all the defaults (the keyboard, etc etc etc --
> everything). *If* you run it that way, NB is probably pretty solid --
> it's been optimized for this "standard" use, and bugs within standard
> operation have been largely quashed. Problems with NB begin when you
> try to customize it.

Robert, that's just a tad unfair, though largely true. The Customization
& Programming Guide supplied back starting with version 2 had the basics
on using XPL, and XyWrite Revealed provided a fuller. more coherent
guide to what all those codes meant and how to use them.

Steve Seibert's licensing of the Xywrite engine, TextBase (which evolved
into Orbis) and the bibliography-generating program (and the programmers
hired to create Ibid from that), and the tight integration of those
three modules makes the package ideal for research as well as
writing.

Seibert also customized the default keyboard to produce (mostly
European) accented characters and run the three main program modules,
but it's still yours to modify just as in XyWrite (along with printer
drivers and help files and frames,etc.) However,though the scholars who
dominate the user list are mostly happy with Seibert's basic
customizations, I'd guess a large proportion do customize their
keyboards extensively or just a little, and keep multiple libraries of
Save/Gets (called phrase libraries in NB). The magnificent Green manual
and then the Big Black Book include clear instructions for all three
integrated programs, and that's where most attention gets focused. The
emphasis is on churning out the books and (increasingly camera-ready)
copy. NBWin has made that far more possible (and more fun).

> In short, NB is waiting for some talented programmer with a XyWrite
> background to really study it (which presupposes that s/he really
> needed it, as say a successor to XyWin). Without a XyWrite
> background, said programmer wouldn't have a clue where or how to
> begin; there simply aren't any technical references to NB. We may be
> waiting a long time.

> -----------------------------
> Robert Holmgren
> holmgren@xxxxxxxx
> -----------------------------

Will Dave Erikson do for one such programmer? He's contributing now, I
don't know how much time per week. And I don't think the other
programmers are any slouch. The SmartWords engine and other
limitations of 32-bit WinGate are the main hurdles, and they've been
hacking away at the inevitable bugs resulting from those.

Cheers,
Dorothy


***********
Dorothy Day
day@xxxxxxxx