Re: Using XyWrite file in Word... [and "Euro symbol"]

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Patricia M. Godfrey"  on Mon, 20
Nov 2006 16:28:56 -0500


> The first method leaves the character as
> cap C cedilla; the second converts it to the euro.

CLIP's method is correct; the "import as text" method is faulty.

> Clip puts in the SAME character (assuming you've
> told it the Code Pages correctly) not the char with the
> same number, right? Which is certainly what one would
> normally want.

Precisely.

> Whereas the conversion filters seem to
> operate on the char number (ASC) level.

Well, the conversion filters date to an era when they could more or less expect
that you'd be working, and converting between, apps in CP 437 or 850. But
using a conversion utility just to Copy & Paste is insanity -- it should be a
two-keystroke thing.

Several people (including myself) have pointed out that NB has modern filters
-- and it does. They work well. But you need to be aware that NBWin operates
in 1252 to begin with! So it is not going to make these 437|850 ==> 1252
conversions either, unless you go through a two-step process of converting from
XyWrite to NB to (e.g.) Word!

The job that CLIP.EXE does is very unusual, and fills a gaping hole.

A related U2 frame is ANSIFS. If you install the appropriate externals for
ANSIFS (and its counterpart VGARST) to work, what you get is an on-the-fly
ability to see & write your XyWrite texts in 1252, without installing a
fullblown "ANSIfied XyWrite". I find this extremely handy, and use it all the
time, e.g. when constructing web pages, because What You See Is What Will You
Get -- in Word, HTML, or any modern Windows app. (Another strategy is to
display XyWrite in a DOS Window on the Desktop, setting your Window font to a
special CP1252 terminal raster font like "cp1252c.fon" -- we've discussed such
fonts before, in fact there's a TON of info at

 http://www.holmgren.org/xywrite/2004/msg01715.htm

.) Non-English speakers are much more conversant with these issues, not simply
because they're smarter and don't go launching unprovoked wars in countries
they don't understand, but because they actually USE high-order characters all
the time. It is completely insane not to have a table of character conversions
readily at hand, always -- I use one which can be read equally in XyWrite or
displayed in HTML (for the latter reason -- all the HTML formatting -- it is a
bit messy when seen in XyWrite, and that's why I've never posted it). Maybe
I'll insert a simple one into the next U2 Help file...

Lastly, U2's "SA/RTF" suite of conversion utilities is an excellent, and
ridiculously easy, method of overcoming CodePage difficulties, *if* the target
app understands RTF. See further "HELP SA/RTF".

Xy3 users should upgrade to Xy4. They're out of the loop.

XyWWWeb at your service!

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