Re: XyWrite history?

["Patricia M. Godfrey" PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx]

J R FOX wrote:
> Yes, I believe I had a release package of Signature.
> Not sure if I still do. However, it *may* have been
> an upgrade, sold directly to Xy customers, and I can't
> say for sure if it ever was on store shelves or
> otherwise sold to the general public.
Jordan's right that it was "sold directly to" Xywriters. I couldn't say
whether it was actually offered for sale to the general public.

> 1993-94 TTG releases XyWrite for Windows - (any
> versions or revisions known?)
My copy is listed as version 4.12, Xw.exe dated 1/24/95. (Had to open it
and go to Help->About. Because it's not really a 32-bit Win app, you
cannot get version from the properties sheet of the exe file.) I cannot
find my original disks for the darn thing. I know they're here
somewhere, but...

I just found my original license for Xy 4.0, and see I wrote "rec'd
3/19/93" on it. If you look at the dates of the componenents, you'll see
that most of them date from early 93, though I notice that
dict.spl and dict.hyp date back to 87. I also turned up a review of 4
that I wrote for the Feb.-March 94 issue of /Copy Editor./ But heaven
knows when I first offered and was asked to write it.

Apropos of dict.hyp, Xy's hyphenation algorithms, once you tell it to
let a word break after 2 letters--so that it knows how to break
Xy-Write!--are light-years beyond any other program's. Including Atex's:
I recall reading proofs that had been set in Atex and finding atrocious
word breaks that Xy handled correctly.

In the interests of giving the devil his due, it should be noted that
the first thing TTG did when it bought XyWrite was to give us back
autocorrect, which had been removed from III+ under (unfounded) threat
of litigation. (Ken Frank was a lawyer and knew that you cannot
copyright something like that.)

Another thing that any history of Xy should include is the fact that the
III+ manual was the absolutely BEST piece of computer documentation that
has ever been written (IMHO). I was a pretty wet-behind-the-ears newbie
when I first saw it, in a client's office. After about a half an hour, I
was using Xy to call, edit, print, and save files, copying and pasting,
running spell check. It was logically--for the end user--organized,
telling you how to do what you would want to do; not atomized into
separate, unrelated functions, the way too much software (and hardware)
docs are. Some years later, I recall a fellow member of the EFA, who had
been using Word, got an editing project from Leslie at CUP, and had to
learn Xy. She did so in no time flat. (Of course, Leslie had created a
lot of customized macros to speed the process. Still.) Bry Henderson has
a copy of the III+ manual and is, I believe, engaged in scanning
it..Even the 4 manual is not bad.

But I could go on all day about this.

Patricia M. Godfrey