Re: Pipe dreams

["R Tennenbaum"]

Robert Holmgren wrote:

>** Reply to note from xywrite@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Wed, 11 Nov 98 20:19:34 -0500
>
>> those who use M$ OSes face a very possible if not
>> likely erosion in support for DOS boxes and applications
>
>There's a solution -- and you know what it is!

Yes, I know I've been a naughty boy.

>> it's going to be
>> difficult for me to use it if the timestamps on the files are munged,
>> or if I can't get a directory listing within Xywrite which has the most
>> recent files at the top
>
>"Munged" means what? v. "to mung"?

It's used as a participle. Invented I suppose by computer users who
don't have the time to say "corrupted."

>IMO, if the OS is Y2K compliant, then the
>files will be properly timestamped, because the OS is doing the filing, not Xy (I
>don't believe that modern OSes allow Xy's internal DOS command processor to perform
>this ring 0 function -- it would be a pretty gross violation of protocol -- but
>I'm not certain either).
>
>To the extent that there are glitches, I think most of them will be
>XPL-overcomeable.

Okay, via what will be a kludge, albeit an elegant and ingenious one.

Look I'm happy to drop the thread. I didn't mean my point to be
anything but a little one-message fantasy about how HTML could be
perhaps tweaked to be a Xy-like format and thus we might get a neat new
plain-text word processor for the next millenium which would also
sidestep TTG's proprietary interest. If people want to shoot it down,
I believe a somewhat more interesting line of attack would be to say
that HTML simply hasn't got what's necessary to be a page-layout
standard, or that we already have Postscript so what's the point. To
say, "we've already got Xywrite" simply begs all the nagging little
questions about TTG's continued commitment and support. If there was
an earlier genesis, it was the pique I felt at the Salon story, whose
conclusion seemed to be, "Hey, text-mode word processing is great but
we're all using Word os if you're not you're probably a little weird.
But charming."

So, I'm taking my idea to
alt.java.programmers.notoblivious.tobrilliant.schemes.

-RT