Re: OS/2 Etc.

[Carl Distefano]

Oh, I certainly don't disagree with you, Robert, on the advantages of a
character-based WP! When I said "graphical", I was assuming that text in this
hypothetical XyWrite-of-the-Future would still be written to disk as
plain-vanilla, 16-bit characters (Unicode or another generally-accepted 65K
character set), with WYSIWYG information embedded in guillemets, or hidden
behind the End_Of_File marker, or maybe coded in some sort of extended
attribute scheme. For that matter, I'm assuming that files in the recently
"announced" (and, presumably, soon-to-be-released) XyWrite for Windows will be
Ascii-based, yet viewable and editable as "gooey" WTLGWCWIS
(Wow-That-Looks-Good-Who-Cares-What-It-Says). I hope I'm not wrong.

As for the disadvantages of GUIs... they're real but, it seems to me,
transitory. Slow screen-paints are less of a factor with today's high-MHz
chips and low-priced graphics accelerators. And, to judge by the ads I've been
seeing lately, the trend in CRTs (and other hardware) seems to be toward
greener and cleaner. Who knows, the push toward more-readable color monitors
for laptops might lead to a breakthrough in desktop displays before the
millennium. So my attitude is, go with the flow, undulate with the ooze, and
give 'em the GUI; it has its uses, not the least of which is to sell software
(which, in turn, promotes survival -- a good thing). But I wouldn't abolish
our character-based draft and eXPanded views, heavens no! First things
first....