Re: XyIII+ in WinXP

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

> Thanks, Harry. I'll play around more with the windowed mode--and I'll
> check out TameDOS, which I assume I can find via the archive. Why do you
> prefer the window vs full-screen mode?


For one thing, with TameDOS, I can get a 43 or 50 line display in windowed
mode.


I've put up a screen shot (that includes some examples of bold, underline,
and italics a la Tame) at:

http://www.hblist.com/Tame-Xy.jpg

 But even without that, I feel "blind" when the screen is filled with
XyWrite and I can't get to my other programs (except by alt-Tab). There are
other benefits, such as easier access to copy-paste. XYWWWEB.U2, however,
has a facility for copying-pasting back and forth between Xy and any
Windows program. Indispensable.



> I do own a copy of IV, and I may give it a shot again. At one time I was
> into XPL, but my interest now is pretty much purely in having Xy back as a
> writing interface--so, speaking from ignorance here--I'm not sure what
> advantages IV would bring in that regard.


One feature that's great is wildcards in search and replace (III has
wildcards only in Search). Say you have paragraphs numbered thus:


1) Blah, blah, blah .....

2) More blah, blah, blah ....

3) Ditto ..............

Suppose you have 30 such, and you want to change the parens to periods. How
do you do that in III? You either write an XPL program or you do 30
Searches for the wildcard for any number followed by a paren, then each
time manually make the change of each paren to period. With IV, you can do
one Change Invisible--here, I'm using N to mean the red wildcard for any
number:


ci /N)/N./

The meaning of that is: change any number followed by a right parenthesis
to THAT SAME NUMBER WHATEVER IT IS followed by a period. (Now you'd have to
take steps to make sure you're changing only the "hits" you intended to
change, but that's a detail.)


I think Robert Holmgren has posted on the advantages of IV over III+, but
it might be hard to locate that in the Archives.




> On 7/13/07, Harry Binswanger <mailto:hb@xxxxxxxxhb@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Mark wrote:
> >
> > >Regarding selection of fonts, the selections I make when in windowed mode
> > >have no effect on the full-screen font; it seems to stay the same no
> > >matter what. As I say, though, it's a perfectly serviceable font--I'm just
> > >feeling the xywriter's urge to tweak. But I'm not sure how to alter the
> > >full-screen font.
> >
> > I recommend not using full-screen mode. A window, as large as you want it,
> > is really preferable, once you get used to seeing the Windows taskbar, etc.
> > around its edges. OTOH, in full-screen mode there is no latency with the
> > cursor movement. On the third hand, you can get a really nice windowed
> > screen with no cursor latency by using TameDOS.
> >
> > Also, there's the fabulous quasi-plug-in XYWWWEB.U2. I forget whether that
> > is fully compatible with Xy III+, not having used that version in over a
> > decade. Even we stick-to-the-tried-and-true-old-programs people tend to
> > regard Xy IV as a very valuable upgrade. True, it's not a necessary
> > upgrade, but once tried you'll never go back. And it doesn't require much
> > at all in the way of departing from III+ procedures. As I recall, for
> > normal uses, you can 95% control it as if it were III+. The sands of time
> > may have erased the birthing pains from my memory--I do know I was very
> > suspicious of Xy IV when it first came out, and I still have my list of
> > "problems"--all of which look very stupid to me now, in hindsight. And now
> > there's this group to help with any questions you have. Of course, you may
> > have to wait 8 hours for an answer. :-)
> >
> >
> > Harry Binswanger
> > mailto:hb@xxxxxxxxhb@xxxxxxxx



Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx