Re: XyWrite to Word

[Russ Urquhart russurquhart1@xxxxxxxx]

On Mar 23, 2006, at 5:15 PM, Thomas J Hawley wrote:
> Unfortunately XyWrite is sinking fast, and one day soon will no
> longer be
> usable on readily available platforms.
To be fair, i think Xywrite exists today, in this state, if only due
to the efforts of this list and the efforts for Robert and Carl.
>  then Word offers
> so many advantages (not the least of which is compatibility with
> the rest of
> the world) that it's just the obvious choice. The new open file
> formats, which
> might be described as highly complex ascii and which will appear in
> Word 12
> when it is released next year, will also make it very attractive. 
> These
> formats will be usable and readable far into the future.
To be honest, MS is only NOW offering a pure ASCII text format for
their documents based on XML. (There was a previous MS-XML version
that was a little more MS than XMl. I haven't seen this latest
version, so I'll wait and see.) After using the MS Word .doc format
and its closed nature to force people to buy the latest versions of
Office and Windows each go around, for all these years, I have a
little problems with your characterization of MS. I'm glad that you
find their software and the features they offer attractive. Everyone
should find software that works for them.
I just recently got off a job where I had to use Word. I created an
eight page document with screen shots and callouts. I saved the
document and went home. I opened the document the next day, no
problems, continued work, no problems and saved my work for the day.
On a gut feeling, I opened the document again to check on it, and was
promptly informed that my document was damaged and if i wanted to try
and repair it! Long story short, i reassembled what i had, from the
pieces i used. My anger was with the following:
1) If there is something i can't do, then tell me, or don't let me do
it.
2) If i HAVE done something illegal, then don't let me save the
document, or tell me as i TRY to save it. Tell me that this saving
operation is a facade.
3) If you DO let me save my program, then, when i open the document
again, if there are problems with the document, LET ME KNOW!
I know that the computer interface is a facade or sorts but i have
always assumed that there were certain unspoken assumptions. I have
NEVER had a single piece of software violate ALL of these items on
such a small document. i was not doing something overly technical! MS
Word failed, IMO, miserably.... So perhaps you can understand my
reluctance to embrace Word and its "attractive" features.
Word HAS emerged as a standards of sorts. Its unfortunate that it
has, only due to its owners dealings and not to its merits. (Come on
Russ, we're all adults here and know how the world works. )
> Having used XyWrite for about 20 years, and a very similar mini-
> based text
> editor for 10 years before that, I recognize that Word's big
> problem is that it
> is too slow;
If my experience is any example, it has more problems than just being
slow.
>
If Word works for you than great! I feel there are some serious
problems with Word. Xywrite has always been streamlined. Trying to
emulate Xywrite in Word is admirable, but if i had problems in just
using Word in Word mode, I wouldn't feel comfortable trying to use
Word in Xywrite mode.
IMO, if you want to continue to use Xywrite i think you are going to
need two things: an environment that will support the MS-DOS
application and some format that will support the Xywrite documents,
whether that is Postscript, PDF or XML. I think that if you have
those two things, you can use Xywrite for as long as you want.


fwiw,


Russ