The Future Of XyWin

[Carl Distefano]

Let me add my voice to those in favor of abolishing keyboard-file limitations
in XyWin! For me, though, the threshold obstacle to using XyWin for real work
is the lack of a readable draft font and the inability to control screen
colors, including colors associated with text attributes; so I never got as far
as the keyboard file. As I've said here several times before, the best way
around these draft view limitations -- and one that would set XyWin apart from
every other word processor -- would be to add the ability to toggle between
true *character-based* draft or eXPanded views and WYSIWYG graphical views
within the Windows program itself. Those of us running OS/2 can do something
approaching that now, by multitasking XyWin and Xy4-DOS; but I understand that
this functionality could be built right into the Windows product. In any
event, if any future development is to focus on XyWin alone, for heaven's sake
*please* at least maintain embedded-command compatibility in the DOS program.
That is to say, issue maintenance releases of the DOS program that will accept
new embedded commands without generating a "Formatting command is not
recognized" error, even if these commands are non-functional under DOS. That
way we multitaskers will be able to continue using both flavors in parallel.
Better still, develop a fully functional 32-bit XyWrite for OS/2 and be done
with it! ... BTW, what is "General Counsel" and what will it be able to do?