Limits on open files

[Dr John Gordon jgordon@xxxxxxxx]

I've followed the comments on open file limits with interest.
Every now and again I, too, need more than nine files open at
once. Using Warp I can, of course, open another instance of
XyWrite. But that is costly in terms of memory. In view of the
previous discussions of operating systems on this list, I know
that some participants may not want to hear the following but I
think it is important as a comment on XyWrite's competition and
the future direction of word processors: Describe is a
multi-threaded 32 bit word processor which is available for OS/2,
Windows NT and Windows95. *The number of open files in Describe
is unlimited*. Hardware limits, of course, apply, but Describe
itself will let you open files to your heart's content. In
addition, you can open multiple instances of Describe with little
extra cost in memory. If you want for instance to open, say
twelve files relating to one project and then open twenty more on
a second project, you can keep the second group separate by
opening a second instance of Describe. Doing this is as easy as
opening a second *window* in XyWrite. Here's another example of
the benefits of multi-threading: Describe will let you do a
search and replace in one file while working on another. And each
search can contain two different search strings at once. Of
course, with unlimited files open you could do searches in half a
dozen open files while continuing to work on yet another file.
This is the future of word processing, folks, and with Describe
and OS/2 it is here now. Suffice it to say I am impressed with
Describe, and the more I use it the more I like it. I continue to
hope that XyWrite will keep up and maybe even leap ahead. But the
competition is getting fierce!

Cheers,
John Gordon