Re: a few XyWrite kindergarten questions

[cld@xxxxxxxx (Carl Distefano)]

Reply to note from "Mimi Gauthier LeBien" 
Mon, 14 Jan 2002 13:46:01 -0800

> 1. I am forced to use XyWin (as opposed to Xy3) in some
> situations. When I attempt to edit some macros a message comes
> up saying "access denied" and that it cannot change the
> xyset.dfl file in order to make the change permanently.

I don't understand what you mean by "edit some macros". Could you
be more specific?

Whatever the problem, it's not, as someone suggested, that XWSET.DFL
is not editable. .DFL files are ;PR;inter files, which are freely
editable even while memory-resident (because what's actually memory-
resident after loading is *information* taken from the file, not the
file itself; the loading process doesn't "lock" the file). The only
customization files that aren't freely editable after loading are
Help files (.HLP, .MNU, .DLG, and .U1-.U9); this is related to the
fact that loading these files generates an index that is appended to
the loaded file. When you try to edit and SAve one of these files
after loading it, you get a "Sharing violation" error, not "Access
denied". The latter error suggests that XWSET.DFL may be set to
Read-only. You might try commanding ATTRIB d:\path\XWSET.DFL,0
to make sure that the attribute is Read-Write. I say this by way of
general information, without understanding the relevance of
XWSET.DFL to whatever "macro" it is you're trying to edit.

> 2. How can I convert a file I do in XyWin to read with
> formatting intact in Xy3+ (or Xy4?). eg. the docs I do in
> XyWin with italic formats (md+it) will show as invisible font
> in Xy3. It seems in Xy3 italics is "mdbr." Also, "md+bo"
> (automatic bold command in XyWin) does not translate in Xy3,
> and I must remove all of the "+" signs in order for Xy3 to
> understand.

To begin with, you're making your life needlessly hard by using
additive MoDes in XyWin. For boldface, use  instead of
; for italics, use  instead of . Of course,
 still won't be recognized in Xy3, but at least your
boldfacing will be cross-compatible.

> Can this be adjusted by changing the printer file? and if so,
> how, and which printer file in which program?

Since MoDe IT is unknown to Xy3, you'd have to modify your XyWin
printer file so that MoDe BR displays as italics. The feasibility
of such a modification may depend on your UWF command (default $WF),
i.e., whether you're using Windows or XyWrite to print in XyWin. If
you're using XyWrite, then it should be possible to modify the
printer file. In a nutshell, the procedure would be to add a
definition for ITALIC to the ATtribute table and then assign that
attribute to MoDe BR in the PT table. The definition of italics is
printer-specific. I have no idea whether there is an analogous
modification that could be put in place for printing under Windows.
This is not exactly kindergarten stuff. But surely someone here
knows how to do it, or at least whether it can be done.

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx
http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/