Re: universal release-define?

[Leslie Bialler lb136@xxxxxxxx]

Myron Gochnauer wrote:

> Before I start playing around with XPL I'd better ask:
>
> Does anyone have an easy way of releasing defined text in
> windows other than the one currently open (in XyWrite, of course)?
>
> I have two particular concerns:
>
> 1)  I always have a little anxiety that I will be working on several
> docuements, forget I have something defined in the last window
> open (the "alternate screen"), and hit the Move function when
> nothing is defined in my current window.  This can be corrected, of
> course, but it can be annoying and a bit of a mess.
>

Quite so, Myron. I've done it myself more times than I can count and
frankly, until you posted this I never thought much about it. You might
(and I intend to) try writing an XPL that would not execute the move if
the value of the window were not the current one, or would simply prompt
you that you had an unreleased define in the alternate window. I'll
ruminate on this some and post again if I come up with a rational
program.

But, of course, I'm probably reinventing the wheel. No doubt Robert
and/or Carl and/or Tim have already worked something like this up.

Thanks for the thought!

>
> 2)  Sometimes I want to copy text from an alternate screen and
> then release the definition without having to go back to the other
> screen. Ideally this would be a generalized copy-and-release
> function that would work within the current document as well as
> alternate screens.
>
> The second of these is pretty easy do manage, but some of you
> may have come up with an elegant *general* way to deal with
> releasing defined text.

Yes. That one's very easy.

--
Leslie Bialler, Columbia University Press
lb136@xxxxxxxx
212-666-1000 x7109 (phone) 212-316-3100 (fax)
> http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup