RE: Xywrite -- missed chance

["mike shupp" mikeshupp@xxxxxxxx]

Hmmm... I'd love to see a UNIX/Linux version of XyWrite.

The problem is, XyWrite was originally written for assembly language,
for Intel machines (and clones) using 16-bit MS-DOS. Transforming
it into a 32-bit (or 64-bit) version which would live happily in
a multiple-user and possibly multiple-processor environment on
everything from I386 to IBM mainframes would not be a simple job.
It'd likely have to be re-written from scratch in C++.

And a lot of issues would have to be decided up front: should it be
a console-based program (i.e., run just as it did in DOS), or moved
to X-Windows?  If the latter, should it cooperate with Gnome or KDE,
or simply be an independent X-application? What mechanism would be
used to import figures and links to other applications, etc? Should
a ported XyWrite continue to have a macro language, and how compatible
should it be with those used in Xy3 / Xy4?  Should a ported XyWrite
be compatible with files generated in MS-DOS system, or be based on
document mark-up languages (SGML, DocBook) which are still evolving?

And finally, would an "Open Source XyWrite" continue to look and act
like the thing we already know and love, or would it morph into just
another Word-clone, like most other open source word processors (or
even worse, become a Vi or emacs clone)?



----Original Message Follows----
From: Brian.Henderson@xxxxxxxx
Reply-To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Xywrite -- missed chance
Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 09:44:57 -0700

I repeat...are there enough of us who:

1. Don't care that Xy is still "technically" owned by someone.
2. Have enough knowledge to read whatever language Xy's engine is written
in.
3. Are skilled at writing in a GUI creating language.
3. Interested in creating a 32 bit GUI version...or better yet, a 64 bit
version.

If Textpad could do XPL, it would be an amazing application.

Open source!
Open source!
Open source!

(easy for me to say...I only qualify under #1)

-Brian H.

-----Original Message-----
From: Yo Intl. YK [mailto:rrr@xxxxxxxx]

I still find it sad and ironic that XY is dying together with its users
while at the same time the XY format is booming -- in the form of HTML,
which is an in-line format so very similar to XY.

And XY would have made such an incredibly good HTML editor, with its its
different viewing modes and command line. It would be so phantastic to
have an HTML editor with XYwrites quick edit view, and people would really
go for it. But it does not happen. Oh well.



-- Rene von Rentzell, Tokyo (rrr @ twics.com)
-- "The power of accurate observation is commonly called
-- cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw




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