RE: memory use

[cld@xxxxxxxx (Carl Distefano)]

Reply to note from Harry Binswanger  Sat, 28 Jun
2003 21:51:00 -0400

> Is it U2 frames in particular that came with Xy4, but other
> frames ("5" rings a bell) were available pre-Xy4?

You're confusing Help files with Help frames! U2 is a file type,
like HeLP, MeNU and DiaLoG. Xy3 had only HeLP; Signature a/k/a Xy4
introduced MNU, DLG and U1 through U4; XyWin added U5 through U9.

All of these files, whether Xy3, Xy4 or XyWin, contain functional
units called frames. Every frame starts with double curly braces
followed by a letter or number that corresponds to a particular kind
of operation (0=top-level menu, L=pulldown menu, K=dialog box, 5=XPL
program, etc.). Type 5 frames were able to run XPL in Xy3, but they
were quirky; typc C frames were better-suited for this purpose. In
Xy4, type C became a tool for displaying text (Help screens); to run
a program, you needed to use type 5.

Xy3's type F frames were great. They enabled hyperlinks -- boldface
terms that linked to other text screens, menus or XPL routines.
Wildly useful, and way ahead of their time! For some crazy reason,
best known to IBM, these were eliminated in Xy4. Big, big loss.
Ditto type 2 frames, which allowed Ascii characters to be selected
from a menu.

Anyway, Tyson lays out the Help system nicely for Xy3. A XyQuest
file called THEORY.MNU (vintage 1992, written by Tim, or was it
Chris?) describes the expanded Help system in Signature and Xy4.
It's at XyWWWeb, the first link in the section entitled "Information
and Documentation".

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