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Addendum to my previous post… The ‘preview’ screen could be an interesting tool. The way I see it is that it could be made to display the text formatted as the ‘end’ use would see it. For example: A document intended for use on an HTML web page would display in a browser-like page that could read HTML scripts. A doc intended to be used for a scientific paper would show up in an appropriate (typeset) report format. – Note: I’m referring to the textual parts only. Objects like charts, illustrations and other embellishments would not show up until the XyWrite formatted text arrived in the actual app.
From: mailto:pdwhite@xxxxxxxx One of the big problems I see is the current (and most likely) WYSIWYG concept. The XyWrite screen really doesn’t satisfy that modern need. However, that said, there is nothing to prevent the addition of a non-editable ‘print view’ screen
which could be brought up as a side-by-side “preview” with the standard XyWrite editing window next to it. Result: rapid entry/editing with a real-time view of the output. For those who are seriously into using XyWrite as a publishing tool,
the preview window could be shown in a 2nd monitor with real-time updates from the text being input from the original XyWrite editing window on the main screen. I actually remember seeing that sort of thing back at Atex when they were developing automatic paging algorithms for newspaper publishing. It was amazing to see back then…
From: xywrite-bounce@xxxxxxxx Yes, that is the kind of compatibility we should be aiming for. I am a second-generation Xywriter; I inherited the program from my father. He was a technical writer for hp, intel, and a host of others in Silicon Valley. I remember him
mentioning Ventura and that Xy would export directly to Ventura. We should investigate the current
apps and what formats they import, and then see whether Xy can be persuaded to export such formats,
keeping the underlying engine tightly coded and, of course,
the UI as is. I don’t see much point in investing anything in a Xy upgrade if it remains an island.
I supported Ventura Publisher for my publishing clients. Ventura was originally written for the short-lived GEM OS. When the first DOS/Windows versions of VenturA came out, it still ran in a GEM environment which was brought up as a DOS
application which, in turn, ran Ventura. I discovered that Ventura’s internal tagged formatting script could be easily generated from XyWrite or Word Perfect. The result could simply be ‘poured’ into Ventura and the final ‘PUB’ was nearly ready to go with very few additional tweaks
necessary. I think that XyWrite’s current potential would be to do the same for new apps that use scripted input.
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