Re: XyWrite orphaned

[Leslie Bialler lb136@xxxxxxxx]

Eric Van Tassel wrote:

> Nevertheless, thinking particularly about the user community I'm associated
> with as a freelance editor, I can hardly bear the thought of a world
> without XyWrite. But, although the arrangement that Ken Frank has
> described is (I agree) both sensible and helpful, it does seem to signal in
> some sense the beginning of the end for this evolutionary line unless
> something radical is done.

Well the problem is that XyWrite is no longer offering what the age demands. In
the time of Bill Gates, the objective seems to be to conceal from the end user as
much as much about computer design as possible. Did Mr. Gates never once think,
for example, that some of us might wonder, after dragging a file to the desktop
from its folder, where the devil that little critter might be found when a simple
dir c:\authors\smith\chapter*.* failed to turn up chapter 3 (precisely that
chapter which had been dragged to the desktop and dropped there)?

>
> Exactly six months ago I asked whether there should be some more radical
> action by that segment of the user community that most needs the features
> that make XyWrite what it is. I'm not enough of an entrepreneur to see how
> this would work in detail, but what I have in mind is a consortium of
> newspapers and book publishers who would buy the software (and the XyWrite
> name, in all its unpronounceable-by-outsiders glory) from TTG, and
> establish a permanent programming and tech support team (located, for
> instance, in premises provided -- inexpensively but not charitably -- at
> [say] Princeton or Columbia or Yale) to keep up with needed fixes and to
> improve the product at an evolutionary pace.
> But in what direction should XyWrite evolve? Do list-members have any thoughts on
this excellent idea Mr. Van Tassel proposes? And I don't mean such gossamer stuff
as getting it to work with faxing software. What major features would you like to
see added to it? In short, what more can you ask of a lean, mean, machine designed
to do one thing and do it well? Surely we do not wish to add the bloated features
of MsWord or WordPerfect when those fat and contented programs supply what the age
demands?

Ah well. It is hard to imagine Ma Nature could make any further improvements in
wolves and cats, but no doubt someday she will.

And I _still_ can't find chapter 3 of the danged Smith book!

--
Leslie Bialler
Columbia University Press
lb136@xxxxxxxx