Chain printing through deltas / set use

["R Tennenbaum" rtenn@xxxxxxxx]

I have a couple of questions born of some procrastinating playing
around, thanks in great part to the recent quite fascinating
discussions. They are unrelated.

First, looking through sample.set, I wondered how much xpl work has
been done here. Of course I know Robert's and Carl's work with u2
routines, but it seems to me I haven't seen new or reworked functions
designed for .set here on the list. Then I tried to load sample.set,
but even after reading the documentation in the Customization Guide
(page 1) I couldn't manage to get any of these to work -- undoubtedly
I'm doing something wrong. I had thought all one had to do was load
the set, specify the "new" command (eg, write/nv) on the command
line, and "voila." Well, no voila, even after invoking oo.

Second: is there a way, other than with mail merge, to use a
delta-enclosed pointer in a document to print another document? --or
failing that, parts of a document? What I'm looking for is a sort of
chain-printing to allow for putting together an HTML file -- so that
for example, I might be able to incorporate things like html-coded
headers and different versions of say, oft-used copyright
disclaimers. Used in concert with an "HTML" printer file (I have the
beginnings of one of these, but as yet it's kind of crude) it could
make html-encoding from Xywrite just about automatic. I see that
there *is* the IS (Insert Text Macro) command, which comes pretty
close, except it seems cumbersome to have to load a whole new set of
macros for this purpose -- unless I need a quick pointer on how to
save numbered temporary macros for use between sessions. And of
course, there's mail-merge, but defining fields seems sort of the
opposite of what I'm after.

Finally, I am curious -- did anyone here start with Xywrite I? I
know I'm a relative newcomer (XyWrite II+, 1985, which I went to
after using Atex at a newspaper job) -- but Steve Crutchfield made me
feel like a babe in arms talking about XyWrite II in 1982.
Rafe T.
http://www.quicklink.com/~rtenn