Re: House Call

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Patricia M. Godfrey"
 on Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:13:40 -0400


> Robert Holmgren wrote:
> > Regrettably, XyWrite does not "just work", even on a DOS or
> > Windows PC. The main (some might say only) reason to use it is
> > configurability -- which is not merely an option but a
> > necessity.
> Well, my memory isn't what it was, and I certainly hesitate to
> differ on such a matter with Robert, but my recollection is that
> when I first started using Xy (under, IIRC, DrDOS 6), it did
> "just work."

That was then. This is now. Printers will not "just work".
The screen size you want and expect is not likely to be the one
you "just get", or the one XyWrite thinks you got. Nobody uses
8.3 files anymore, and you need to *know* how to reduce long
filenames to 8.3. You can't run the installation program and
get barebones DFL and INT files, because floppy drives are
virtually extinct. If you DO want to interact with a modern
operating system, then you need new add-ons like U2 or Tame, and
they must be configured. You can't buy a Xy4 manual for love or
money, the Help file is a joke, so you qua ignoramus are simply
stuck with, well, with whatever you have, because you don't know
how to change it. In short, all sorts of stuff won't "just
work". Think of the problems that you, a sophisticated user,
are having working under XP!

My point is merely that you can deliberately not learn anything
about M$Word, and still get by. It will function as a
typewriter and more. Most programs nowadays fit the "just
works" description. XyWrite isn't one of them. (NotaBene,
arguably, is one of them. 99% of people on the NBWin maillist
are utterly ignorant, yet they love the damn thing. They just
use the menus.)

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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