Re: XyWrite to Word

["Thomas J Hawley" tjh@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Robert Holmgren"  on Fri,
24 Mar 2006 01:25:20 -0500

> "Because" it is object-oriented, you can't manipulate the objects? VBA is
> designed, bottom up, to manipulate objects.

Word is object-oriented (to format, you apply a property to an object).
XyWrite is linear (to format, you insert a command in the text stream that
takes effect from that point forward). Most of the frustration
experienced by new Word users who were originally trained on a linear word
processor (XyWrite, WordPerfect) is a direct result of their failure to
understand this.

You _can_ get Word to act, more or less, like a linear word processor,
either by using the menus or by VBA. You do this by applying direct
formatting, as opposed to style-based formatting. But in doing so, you're
fighting Word's object model, and sooner or later your document will
become unstable or corrupt.

> Why is that? Sinking in what respect? I don't see "no longer usable"
> happening (and why "soon"?).

As Senator Moynihan used to say, everyone's entitled to their own opinions
but not their own facts. XyWrite has had one trivial update in 12 years;
the source code is unavailable, and the company that owns it is defunct;
and my guess is that less than a few hundred people in the world use it on
a regular basis. I'd call that "sinking" but only because I don't want to
use a stronger term which might offend the sensibilities of my readers on
this list.

If you use a word processor to prepare documents for business, XyWrite is
simply no longer a viable way to work. Your clients and customers won't
accept it.

> XyWrite is for the few and
> the spare. Cosmetics are just pretense, IMO -- the trappings of commerce.

Fair enough. My own view is that this list is populated with people who
have invested a lot of time and effort in learning and customizing
XyWrite, and they don't want to give that up (and then make a required new
and even larger investment in Word). Some will not "upgrade" to XyWrite 4
(and I can recall my own apprehension when faced with that choice many
years ago). I can understand that. I just don't think that it's a
realistic position any more. There are times in life when you have to
move on, change, learn something new.

Tom Hawley
New York
tjh@xxxxxxxx