Re: Xy4 Dos Bugs

[Robert Holmgren]

* Reply to note from  05/09/96 2:58pm GMT

> 2) When printing, XyWrite IV responds to any printer error by aborting...

> 2.1) Setting the page range to pages 1-3 will print out pages 1-6!
> It always doubles the number...

I can't reproduce either of these problems in v4.017. Likewise, the complaint of J Besser
that the cursor is not displayed on double occurrences of words (when Spelling) is not
evident on my machine: cursor is always visible, and rests on the next word following the
double occurrence. OTOH, I do have undesired erasures when back-deleting a manual
correction during Spell [Besser].

But I would make several points (and not to diminish the seriousness of the bugs that
exist either -- I was particularly impressed by Joe Solla's sober
"Woof" list, although even there I differ with Joe on some points -- for example, III-
style PT tables _can_ still be employed if user wants; but I think that the new
conventions UF SZ SY etc are really much more flexible, and I got mighty tired of writing
a PT table for every bloody font! Also, you can still assign colors to the various MoDes
in a PRinter file, e.g.
MD BI=30, MD BO=15, MD BR=5, MD BU=9, MD FL=28, MD FN=18, MD FR=12, etc, one spec per
line, just like in the old days -- I've always done it this way; and when you use PT
tables, they print out too, e.g. you write
PT=3
MD NM+PE
MD BO+PE-BOLD
MD 10+PE+SHADOW etc etc. I know it works because I continued to work this way throughout
the life of Sig. And there were a number of Joe's points that seemed to me slightly
misleading. I mean, you couldn't kern under v3.x either, so what else is new? And
_negative_ X movement in SUbstitution and WiDth tables
(printer files) was eliminated in a revision to v3.x, not in v4 -- I remember hitting the
ceiling about it, because I did simulate kerning by that means, and quite successfully
too! And the PI command does still work, at least on my machine. And... well, anyway...
(I hope I'm remembering Joe's points correctly.) The crummiest thing about this
Internet list is that Tech Support isn't here! It's simply PREPOSTEROUS for users to be
tossing these issues around without any authoritative voice to appeal to or to moderate.)

First, the sum of complaints about Xy4DOS strike me as not-very-numerous and not all that
grave, in comparison with the list of bugs an arm long in v3.x. If you go back and look
at XyQuest BBS posts from the late 80s/early
90s, all the horror comes rushing back. Second, XyWrite has always undergone changes from
version to version, and they've generally been perceived, at least initially, as misguided
steps backward. But overall, if you compare IV with II, we're talking about a huge amount
of evolution and functional expansion. Third, I think we're not recognizing that the old
XyHabit of seemingly senseless change to the feature set, which often and unexpectedly
threw our systems into a cocked hat even when minor revisions to EDITOR were issued, has
essentially stopped. Fourth, the complainants aren't really acknowledging the innovations
and new features embodied in IV vs. III. All you have to do is peruse _Making the
Transition_ to refresh your awareness of what's been added: about 400 pages of some
pretty good stuff. IMO...

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Robert Holmgren
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