Re: Xy Under Linux

["mike shupp" mikeshupp@xxxxxxxx]

Some writers do use Linux -- most famously, perhaps, Bruce Sterling.

So that wasn't quite the implication I aimed at, which is that programmers
tend not to be writers.  Even more importantly, the

features that Linux-using programmers regard as important or
desirable for word processors are not necessarily the features
that XyWrite users might regard as important.

For example, many Unix/Linux users like the idea of modifying
WP behavior on the fly by redefining key bindings, revising
internal code, etc.  They start off "sold" on the idea of a
internal macro language, in other words. But there are so very
many many macro languages for word processors.... why recreate
XPL for a Linux-ized word processor when LISP is available? Or
Scheme? Or some incarnation of Word's? Wouldn't it really be
better to use a macro language that "most" people are familiar
with, rather than something familiar only to a handful of XyQuest
groupies?

We're up against a mindset, in other words.







----Original Message Follows----
From: Patricia M Godfrey 
Reply-To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Xy Under Linux
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 15:57:24 -0500

What Mike is implying is that writers don't use Linux. But writers are
notoriously underpaid, so wouldn't they use a powerful writing tool if it
were available under copy left? (And wouldn't the Electronic Frontier
Foundation and all the other people who claim to want to enhance freedom
of the press be interested? Freedom of the press belongs to the one who
has a press.) But I must respectfully disagree with his statement that
"XyW's save-gets...are totally irrelevent to them." If you're generating
thousands of words, the ability to auto-insert phrases, formatting code,
and whole blocks of text with two keys is an enormous benefit. I usually
write my business letters in WordImPerfect; when I'm working on my book,
I do it in Xy, because only there can I insert autonumbered, formatted
levels of heading by hitting two keys at once. (Anyone ever try to use
autonumbered heads in WP? DON'T.) Not to mention hyphenation algorithms
better that those in mainframe typesetting programs (including Atex, as I
may have mentioned here), the ability to change case with two keys (I
have a very short pinky finger and am always finding that letters that
should be cap are lowercase. Ctrl back arrow, Ctrl H, and it's fixed. In
WP or Word I have to go to the mouse, or hold down the shift key--my
inability to do which caused the error in the first place--pull down a
menu,...), and a much more flexible and customizable spell checker than
Word or WP's.
Patricia


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