Re: nine windows

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Morris Krok"  on Thu, 25 Dec
2003 12:08:33 +0200

> I would also like to have the Xysearch website address as I am
> now working on a new computer.

 http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/xysearch.cgi

> I am interested to know whether any XY4 dos users, also use NB Win,
> and if so how compatible do they find it with XPL.

I do, from time to time. I don't like it nearly as much as Xy4-DOS, because I
don't think either the engine or the XPL is nearly as stable. It does use and
understand XPL, so in a sense it is 100% compatible. But if you're asking
whether XPL for Xy4 or Xy3 is going to run under NBWin, the answer is that is
it probably 90% compatible. There are "issues", e.g. relating to the interface
with DOS. Notabene for Windows is a much better choice than XyWin nowadays --
if you're willing to pay for it. With NBWin the trade-off is, a program under
active development with an engaged (if extraordinarily non tech-oriented [this
is putting it politely]) user base, for a program that costs a significant
amount initially and issues USD 100 upgrades every year or so to sustain an
income stream (the annoying part of this is that enhancements to general word
processor facilities are few -- they tend to put their energy into their
specializations, like bibliography generation, Ibid, Orbis, Ibidem, etc.). The
NB people, both the developers and the users, are extremely nice, civil, polite
people -- to my taste, cloyingly so at times, but no user ever feels "stupid"
there, as often happens elsewhere (I'm talking about the NB maillist). NB
started out, literally, with biblical roots, and it still shows (lots of
theologians).

It's a strange program in many ways. And alarmingly "stuck" in its little
niche, with not much (read: zero) outreach to the general word processing
community. Have you _ever_ heard it mentioned, anywhere outside the XyWrite
world? I don't know how they survive.

Carl is on holiday and will return in a week or so. I suggest that you defer
questions about specific "CLD" programs until then (Carl is "CLD", Robert is
"RJH").

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