Re: Just wondering

[Dorothy Day day@xxxxxxxx]

In a gloomy prognosis for further directions Xy users might ever hope to
take, Robert Holmgren had many disparaging things to say about Nota Bene
as it now exists and the form its NBWin incarnation will likely take, NB
users and their limited XPL skills, and their docile acceptance of the
product as it exists, warts and all.

I don't know how familiar Mr. Holmgren is with the current product, or
whether his remarks are based on an earlier version that he found
"constrictive." Since the current version is based on Xy 3.57, it is of
course a more primitive version of the editor than Xy4 users have grown
accustomed to. As for its not being "nearly as flexible or extensible as
XyWrite," I find that puzzling. It's the same editor, granted with a lot
of supplied customization in the help file and keyboard, but none of
that especially fixed in concrete. Anything a Xy (at least through 3+)
user can do with XPL can be done in NB, and the keyboard mappings can be
redefined. Yes, NB is different from Xy, but no, it's not hard to make
one simulate the other, depending on your personal keyboard habits.

The fact that most NB users don't do very sophisticated things in XPL
(do most Xy users?) is mainly attributable to satisfaction with the
customizations provided. Many of the clever programs written and used by
Xy users seem painfully crafted ways to do what NB is already customized
to do. Diacritics are already mapped on the default keyboard, routines
for handling bibliographic entries, footnotes, and intext citations were
there from the start (Ibid being an improvement, not a completely new
feature), etc. NB users write little XPL routines to do some task not
supplied by the default toolbox, and those are usually very simple. To
characterize them as "pathetic" seems a bit churlish. The fact that not
even the best XPL programs written for NB4.5 or earlier versions (there
are a few skilled XPL writers in the crowd) begin to match some of the
marvels churned out by XyMasters Holmgren, Baehr, and Distefano (how
many are there in that elite club?) may arise from the same lack of
need.

Bugs--ah, bugs. NB has always been very good about trying to release as
close to bug-free code as they could (so release delays became infamous
in days long past). They've also been quite responsive about writing
fixes for specific problems particular users have had with their
particular system configurations. If few people report the same problem,
it's assumed to be not of general interest, and only those who report
get the "fix." That has occasionally been a problem, but usually it's
worked. With modules as complex as Lingua, the wonder is that it all
does work extremely well. Those of us who have despaired of ever getting
CJK or even Arabic supported the way all European and Biblical languages
(and multiple-diacritic characters for transliteration of Asian
languages) are supported (guess who the initial user base was?) have
grown, well, docile. There are other ways of doing that now.

Docility--well, the same product has been in NB user hands for several
years now--what new is there to work out? That doesn't mean low
expectations and demands, just satisfaction in general with the high
level of the product the NB programmers put out. Until NBWin appears
(and only those who have seen demos at conferences in November even know
what it looks like), there's little to talk about except mutual help in
dealing with quirks mostly associated with Win95 (turn off dos print
spooling, etc.) And of course recipes for chutney, scrumpy, and other
delectables of the season.

I don't know how well the NB programmers have conquered the Windows API,
with all its pitfalls. I do have some confidence that they have a better
grasp of it than the folks working on XyWin (a situation brought about
by a major turnaround at NB). Nor do I know how well they have retained
the clean, simple, fast character of the Xy interface in the Windows
environment. I imagine that before long we will have a look at it, and
then we can jump to criticize, or pronounce it a "dead end." Till then,
it seems like so much gloomy flapping in the winter wind.

So, Robert, was it something you ate? Try a little chutney to sweeten
your mood...

	Dorothy


*****
Dorothy Day			
School of Library and Information Science
Indiana University
day@xxxxxxxx	
*****
	"He also surfs who only sits and waits."