Re: XyWrite Development

[OkAnnie@xxxxxxxx]

Kenneth Frank wrote:

:   Annie Fisher's comments about upgrading
:   from Xy4 deserve a response.

She wishes he had felt her question also deserved a response. To
wit: "Are you saying now that TTG will continue to sell but won't
continue to develop or support DOS products?"

:   First, she said "because sloppy : documentation of v4
function redefinitions :   makes porting masses of v3 xpl code
hazardous ... "

:   You are really making a mistake there,
:   as one of the continuing efforts and
:   improvements in successive Xy4 versions
:   is making III+ XPL code run natively in Xy4.

Because I find the restrictions on xyWrite MV and CP confining
and weird, I don't use the functions in xpl or .kbd files. I put
text on the stack unconditionally with the define and remove
functions (DF/DF/RD, RP, RW, etc.), and get it--often after I've
ernv'd the file it came from--with the unconditional UD.

As far as I can tell, Signature/xyWrite 4 wiped out the concept
of v3 DF/DF/RD ... UD. With the, uh, casual v4 documentation it's
difficult to to be sure. You say quite definitively that I am
making a mistake: Can you say with the same certainty that xyDos
4 will now treat my .kbd and xpl UDs exactly the way v3 does?

The UD change was reason enough by itself for me to uninstall v4,
but--after reading that even RE had been tampered with--the last straw was finding that
Signature/v4 treated lower-case mode codes as errors. What a
porting nightmare! Am I really making a mistake in supposing that
that case restriction remains?

:   Second, she said that she wouldn't upgrade :  her 4.001 (at
an exhorbitant cost of $15) "as : a protest against being charged
for v3 support ... "

Actually, the last time she needed v3 support was years ago; her
protest is an expression of dismay at TTG's notion of what might
make a v3 user want to ugrade.

:   [ ... ] Most of our users seem to understand : the plain
business facts and accept our policy :  as a reasonable way to
deal with the problem.

Perhaps the problem is one of perception. Instead of demonizing v3 users as
"the problem," why not capitalize on v3's well-recognized virtues
and exhance its appeal? This would take only imagination, not programming resources.
Several levels of CorelDraw are available; given the right spin,
why *not* sell xyWrite 3 as well as 4?

One old-wine-in-new-bottles idea: Other selling points were
secondary to xyDos 4's graphical feature. But she has used a de
facto graphical xyWrite 3 since long before v4 was released. If
she hits  after she opens a file that she's printed to
disk, or points to one in a subdir listing, her software
PostScript interpreter's (VGA+) screen driver presents an
accurate, zoomable, but not editable graphical image.

Package a xyWrite 3.55 reissue with a software PostScript
interpreter as, say, "xyWrite Classic: Publisher's Preview
Edition"? Users could print xyWrite-generated PS files to
virtually any laser, inkjet, or dot matrix printer; PS hardware
owners would welcome the preview feature. The PostScript language
is a standard. The only printer drivers needed would be existing v3
PS drivers, to print to disk; the only print-related upgrades needed would be
PS Type 1 width tables. Hardware drivers are the interpreter
developer's headache. (One couldn't rightfully call it a
"graphical" version since integrating EPS files takes some PS
language expertise.)

Another: Not all xyWrite 3 users have been forced to buy Word for
Word and many could use MasterSoft impex. How about making the v3
filters available as an add-on or a part of a v3.55
package--"xyWrite Classic: Explorer's
Edition"?

:   [ ... ] the customers who buy our current products : are
entitled to have their dollars used for :   supporting them--not
users of the past.

She bought one of TTG's current products, xyDos 4, not from need,
but as a gesture of good will and gratitude. The shameful v4 "Making the Transition"
(from v3) pamphlet did not return the favor. Then TTG ignored her
repeated long-distance maydays regarding filters that were listed
in the xyDos 4 documentation and absent from the product (she
believes there's a legal term for that). To get them she was
forced to buy Word for Word. Call that $100 or so for W4W plus
that month's check to AT&T for futile toll calls her xyWin
upgrade. TTG made her, despite her best efforts, a "user of the
past."   --Annie Fisher

========================== annie fisher  nyc