Re: XyWrite versions

[Pam Upton upton1@xxxxxxxx]

On Tue, 22 Jul 1997, Wendell Cochran wrote:

> I'll be glad if someone can confirm that the Atex program was a
> predecessor of XyWrite, & can tell me what it was called in 1981.

Well, there are others on this list who know far more about the history
of XyWrite than I do, but I can definitely confirm that it grew out of
the original Atex dedicated-typesetting software. In 1984, when the UNC
Press decided to enter the computer age, our choice of software was
guided by the fact that we had, at that time, an in-house typesetting
department that used the Atex system. Some research led us to XyQuest,
which was started by former Atex programmers, and as we understood it,
the first incarnation of XyWrite was written to emulate, on the PC, that
Atex system. In fact, before the first computers arrived at the Press,
our editors began their training by practicing on the Atex keyboards.

I don't think the Atex software had a name--it was simply a built-in part
of the system.

Our Atex equipment was phased out some 7 years ago, but we're still
hanging in there with XyWrite, and our outside typesetters love us for it!

Pam Upton
Assistant Managing Editor
Univ. of N.C. Press
upton1@xxxxxxxx