XyWrite hangs on quitting.

["Michael Edwards" mje@xxxxxxxx]

                         Michael Edwards.

   I am still very new to using XyWrite, but am having a persistent problem.
When I try to quit, the program seems to hang, and just does nothing, leaving a
blank blue screen. This seems to be so regardless of whether I still have an
unsaved file open or not; if I do, it prompts me to save, and does so - it's
after that that the problem occurs.
   It doesn't seem to happen all the time; although I can't say there are no
exceptions without doing a lot more experimenting, it does appear that the cause
has to do with whether the DOS screen I start XyWrite from is in 25-line mode or
50-line mode. I normally use the latter, but that's the one that appears more
likely to be associated with the problem. (One might say that, in that case, I
know how to solve it: just make sure I use the DOS screen in 25-line mode. But
it doesn't seem a real solution, and the fact that this occurs seems to indicate
an instability somewhere which I don't trust.)
   There is another peculiar consequence of the screen mode the DOS screen is
in: XyWrite appears in 50-line mode regardless of whether the preceding DOS
screen is in 25-line or 50-line mode. But it affects the amount of active
screen available to XyWrite: when the DOS screen is in 25-line mode, the XyWrite
screen encompasses the entire screen (nearly 50 lines); but when the DOS screen
is in 50-line mode,
the XyWrite screen, in 50-line mode, only actively uses the top half of the
screen, leaving the bottom half a blank and unusable blue.
   When I start XyWrite, I notice that there seems to be a longish interval
before the XyWrite screen appears, during which I just see the black DOS screen.
I suppose it's possible this could be related, although it's only for a few
seconds.
   I am using Windows 95, and normally run XyWrite in full-screen mode in the
DOS prompt available from the Windows menu - not a DOS window with other Windows
things visible around it. However, when I try it in the DOS window, it behaves
the same - hangs or not depending on the number of lines the DOS screen or
window was in. So whether it's a full DOS screen or a DOS Window doesn't seem
have anything to do with it.
   When it hangs, I can Alt-Tab to Windows, and then when I press
Ctrl-Alt-Del, the list of current programs doesn't indicate that the program is
not responding, the way it usually does when something has frozen or crashed.
But if I click on the "End Task" option in that menu, I am then told it is not
responding, and/or that Windows cannot close it automatically and that I should
close it by its own quit command. But then Windows closes it down anyway. It
doesn't seem to crash Windows itself or any other Windows things that may be
running at the time, although I suppose it could make the whole computer
unreliable.

   Does anyone know what's going on here? Is using Windows 95 the problem? I
am aware that many on this list use XyWrite with Windows, but I wonder whether
it would really be better to use a proper DOS for it, not the pseudo-DOS that
comes with Windows. If I want to use DOS programs such as XyWrite, should I
really have another computer which boots on DOS, and is devoted only to DOS
programs?
   Any clues about this would be welcome. Thank you.

             Regards,
             Michael Edwards.