Msg: Re: A radical idea: a new XyWrite

I suspect you are on the right track with that, Paul. Later, I can post here with an attachment of a sample, generic document like this, which does not give away any sensitive info (regardless of the passage of many years since its creation), along with a snapshot of what turns up when NB tries to pull it in. The printer driver that had been loaded by Xy-3 when the document was created would have been one of the basic HP LJ drivers. We still have a 4L -- that compact workhorse -- which has been in service for well over 20 years. I think there were in excess of 5 drivers that it could use. It has been repaired a couple times, and we recently had to scrounge around to find a replacement toner cartridge for it, but it keeps chugging along. No Wi-Fi though, so we use one of the other printers for that feature.

Jordan

From: Paul Ambos
To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2018 12:28 PM
Subject: RE: A radical idea: a new XyWrite

I suspect the problem may be the lack of translation between the XY3 "PT" (Print Type) commands, which were largely user-definable other than PT1=10--pitch, PT2=12-pitch, and PT3=Proportional. There is no cognate in XY4 or NB: You would need to invent a program to translate any customized or noncustomized typefaces into the current font, size, and style commands.

Regards,

Paul Ambos

Paul Ambos, P.C.

418 Magnolia Street

Highland Park, NJ 08904-2641

(732) 572-8795

(732) 572-8796 fax

From: xywrite-bounce@xxxxxxxx [mailto:xywrite-bounce@xxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Myron Gochnauer
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2018 2:52 PM
To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: A radical idea: a new XyWrite

... In our office, we regularly draw upon a huge library of legal documents that were written in Xy 3+, and which are heavily and precisely formatted with Xy deltas. In testing that at home, I have found NB to be a total non-starter. Attempts to import any of these documents yields apparent gibberish, in a typesize so tiny that you would need a microscope to read it.

Interesting. One of the things I've always valued about any version of Xy is that its formatting codes are fairly intuitive, and are hidden by only two non-standard characters.

I don't recall any brick-wall problems reading Xy4 files into NB. What Xy3 codes produce problems when read by NB? Since NB reads and 'understands' basic Xy formatting, why can't the incompatibilities be corrected by search-and-replace? I'm guessing that there many have been an evolution in page layout, line spacing, margin changes and similar things.

NB did not preserve XPL, so U2 and many other nifty Xy additions won't work, of course, but these are not necessary for text and its embedded formatting codes. What is missing or broken?

Myron