Whither Dave Erickson? -Reply

["Steve Crutchfield" SCRUTCH@xxxxxxxx]

XyWrite, at least through version 3, was written in assembly language
- a fact noted in the manual for XyWrite III+. This accounts for it's
speed - although hellaciously difficult to write, assembly language
usually produces the fasted executable program.

I have a vague memory that when XyWrite IV was created and turned into
Signature, it was re-written (at least in part) in C, since IBM
planned to port XyWrite to Windows and OS/2. (Remember the default
directory structure, which created the directory SIG1D? This stood for
"Signature 1.0 for DOS", indicating OS/2 versions were forthcoming.)
XyVeterans will remember how sluggish release 1.0 of signature was,
although release 1.02 was noticably faster. (XyQuest quoted me to that
effect on a press release announcing that version).

I also have a vague memory of something TTG said in a publicity blurb
for XyWrite IV that they had rewritten major portions of the code".
Perhaps this was the work of Dave Erickson rewriting part of the code
for TTG.

I presume that XyWIn was/is written in C, since virtually all
programming tools for Windows are based on the assumption that one
uses C or C++ to code Windows applications.

Steve "Was a history major in college, so he remembers obscure trivia"
Crutchfield

>>> "Myron Gochnauer"  11/18 8:13 am >>>
Can anyone clarify the role of Dave Erickson in the ongoing history
of XyWrite? I think he was the guiding light for XyQuest and the
lean, mean XyWrite we love. Was it his idea? I gather he is now
associated with TTG, but I'm not certain.   Is he one of the
*programmers* responsible for XyWrite over the years?

Is there any chance that we could hear some of his views on the
possibilities/difficulties of further debugging XyDOS? He would
certainly be the expert who would know. We civilians don't even
know what programming language Xy IV code uses.

I think almost everyone would agree that XyWrite is the best DOS
editor ever, and something that will retain its value as long as
writers put fingers to keyboards. I, for one, would like to thank
Dave.

Myron