Re: A couple of issues

[wolfie@xxxxxxxx (Wolfgang Bechstein)]

Peter Feldmann wrote:

> For example, the auto-replace feature is gone from later releases.

I wonder just *what* it is then that does about 30 or 40 percent of
my typing when I bang out a run-of-the-mill translation, using Xy/DOS
4.016?

> I have used release 4.xx _and_ the Windows product, and failry extensively.
> I still find myself turning back to the 3.xx product.

In fairness, I have to say that for me, too, it took two tries to finally
make the move to Xy4/DOS. I immediately bought the upgrade when it first
came out (as I have done with all Xy upgrades since version II), but
quickly retreated back to my familiar and much beloved 3.55 environment
because of the changed defaults, the subtly but annoyingly unfamiliar
feel of version 4 and the bugs that cropped up all over the place.
But a couple of months (it may even have been something like a year or so)
later, I took a second look at Xy4 in a later dot-upgrade incarnation,
and found it much improved. Not only that, I discovered a couple of new
features that made it seem worthwhile to invest a couple of days' work
in adapting my keyboard file and some XPL programs, and getting the defaults
to where I wanted them. So I did, and another couple of months later, I
felt safe enough to gently let Xy3 drop off the edge of my hard disk.

Incidentally, auto-replace was indeed taken out at one stage, because of
a litigation threat to XyQuest related to an earlier patent, but this
happened not in version 4 but when moving from 3.55 to 3.56 (I think).
Signature (urk) had some kind of crippled auto-replace, but in version 4
it's there in all its indispensable glory (also in the Windows version).
In fact, I had a good laugh when, about a year ago, I saw an ad for
Microsoft Word, touting the introduction of some similar feature as
the best thing since sliced bread. For me, it does 30 or 40 percent
of my typing... but I am repeating myself.

P.S.: After having already written this message, I just read the long
comment by Joe Solla listing numerous problems with Xy4. I think he
makes a number of valid points, and I can understand his rationale for
staying with version 3. Some of these points also bother me, but since
I do very little formatting and less and less printing these days
(no tables, no math etc.), they are not as important to me as the
mere text handling features. And regarding the "intolerable wait
while Xy4 spools to disk" when handling a block larger than 64K,
that is not my experience at all. I often define very large blocks
of text for moving and other tasks, and Xy4 accomplishes what I want
very quickly (I guess having lots of EMS memory and specifying a RAM
disk--2 megabytes in my case--as a temporary drive helps).

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Wolfgang Bechstein                   
Technical translator            Japanese / English / German
Sakura, Japan          Tel 81-43-461-5911 Fax 81-43-461-5910
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