Re: New XPL Instruction Manual at XyWWWeb

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Russ Urquhart  on Tue, 24
Jan 2006 15:07:33 -0600


> (I wonder, when Dave designed it, if, internally, there isn't some
> sort of mapping of the XPL commands to the PC assembly op codes?)

Of course! I've said this a hundred times: the functions *are* identical to
the smallest procedures that the word processor performs. They *are* the
elemental particles that make up XyWrite. String them together -- and you get
larger actions. Everything you do on the keyboard is made up of strings of
these little particles. It is all UTTERLY familiar to every single user! They
just don't KNOW the *names* of these particles. That's why, with every msg I
send, I try to drum these ideas into peoples' heads (not that it seems to do
much palpable good!): I write "CoPy" "MoVe" "DeFine" "eXeCute" "CAll" -- why
do I do that? Because those are the NAMES of the particles: functions CP, MV,
DF, XC, command CAll, etc etc etc etc ad nauseum.

It is elegant, it is simple, it is logical, it is intuitive. You have tables
(using the U2 TABLE command) of all the functions, all the VAriables, all (or
almost all) of the commands. You have really good manuals. It's ALL right
there, ready and (mostly just) waiting! One simply needs to muster the courage
to try them out. Somehow, here, people seem to need a dinner break and a good
night's sleep before they can move a  five characters to the right and
hit the  again -- and only, ONLY, when following strict instructions!
Where is intellectual curiosity?

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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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