XyWrite to Word

["Thomas J Hawley" tjh@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Robert Holmgren"  on Thu, 23 Mar
2006 03:40:30 -0500

> Except that this is a XyWrite, not Word, list.

Unfortunately XyWrite is sinking fast, and one day soon will no longer be
usable on readily available platforms. I rarely use it any more. It's time to
move on. If one is willing and able to learn something new, then Word offers
so many advantages (not the least of which is compatibility with the rest of
the world) that it's just the obvious choice. The new open file formats, which
might be described as highly complex ascii and which will appear in Word 12
when it is released next year, will also make it very attractive. These
formats will be usable and readable far into the future.

Having used XyWrite for about 20 years, and a very similar mini-based text
editor for 10 years before that, I recognize that Word's big problem is that it
is too slow; just getting a new file opened and named is a chore. The clunky,
poorly designed menu interface and countless dialogs are always between you and
your work. But it doesn't need to be that way.

> Creating a Word command line is easy;
> the problem is, then what? The only commands that you could issue that Word
> would inherently understand would be VBA commands, and they are wicked hard to
> remember, plus VERY longwinded.

That can all be changed in VBA itself. To take a simple example, creating a
new file based on a template (and we all know the importance of using templates
in Word, right?) Doing that via the Word native menu structure involves a lot
of clicking and dealing with dialogs. Every time I do it, about half way
through the process I'm reminded that in XyWrite I could have been writing
already.

What I'm proposing is something like this:

=====

Pressing F9 in Word opens the equivalent of a XyWrite command line

NE newfilename,templatename

Enter

Begin writing

=====

Behind the scenes, VBA is parsing the command line and converting it into
"longwinded" VBA code. Word is extremely customizable in this regard, and you
can take complete control of its built-in menu structure with VBA.

Because Word is an object-oriented program, only a small subset of what we know
as XyWrite commands could (and should) be usefully implemented in this way.
You don't want to "convert" say the XyWrite IP command so that you can indent
paragraphs in Word; if you did, you'd be applying direct formatting which
should almost never be used and will eventually cause untold frustration if it
is (a rule presently known to only a tiny fraction of one percent of Word
users). In Word, if you're using the object-oriented foundation properly, you
set up (one time, in advance) an indented paragraph style in the template, and
then simply apply the style when your writing calls for an indented paragraph.

So the Word "command line" might include:

NE and its variations
SA and its variations
CA
US (Use Style; very powerful in Word)
TY

The design goal of the Word command line should be to minimize keystrokes while
providing a consistent, easily remembered syntax for doing common things--just
like the XyWrite command line. Common formatting tasks are not included, since
those are handled by applying styles to objects.

You might also add a few common things like RF that would just take you
directly to the appropriate Word dialog, where you would then work within the
dialog.

Just a few thoughts on a March afternoon.

Tom Hawley
New York
tjh@xxxxxxxx