TTE: Tim's Terrific Enhancements

["Myron Gochnauer" GOCH@xxxxxxxx]

> Tim Baehr's prize for his contest, a package containing his >
enhanced menus, dialogs, etc., for XYDOS 4, is available for >
downloading via anonymous FTP from the list server. It is a >
binary file named ENHANCE.ZIP, roughly 260K.  > Wow! Excellent.
There are some extraordinarily useful features in Tim's upgrade
for XyDOS. I'm still exploring them, and in due course will send
Tim $15 for what truly *is* an *upgrade* to XyWrite.

Here are a couple suggestions to further enhance the
Enhancements:

1. Can the File Open dialogue pick up the directory sort order
which many of us set in the startup file? (I prefer sorting by
extension.) I've always thought it odd that it didn't.

2. *I* find it extremely useful to have a dialogue box which
allows me to choose a new template at any time, even after a
file is open. For me this is an old Xy II+ habit of opening a
new file and then embedding the format. That aside, I often
change my mind after editing for a while and want to change the
basic format. What I have done is copy and slightly modify code
from the File New dialogue, and add a new menu item to Format
(just below Styles) which I call Templates. I also add a
shortcut to the new code on Ctrl-F11 (since it was not otherwise
used, and I could write an entry on the XyWrite 4.0 Keyboard
Template). Now when I press Ctrl-F11 I am presented with a list
of templates and given the choice of embedding one at the cursor
location. This is much easier than trying to remember the exact
template name and merging it "by hand".

3. The ability to change directory to that of the current file
("cdx") is a goddessend ("godsend" for the non-feminist among
us). Would others find it useful to have a stack/list of
previously accessed subdirectories so we could easily move among
several different subdirectoies? Perhaps by judicious parsing it
could use the stack of previously opened files.   I often
find myself labouriously moving among three or four different
directories. Often I simply need to see several directories or
perhaps run an XPL program in them.

One other observation: In Tim's instructions, he gives a series
of lines to be added to the startup file. The last one is
JM(ReOpenFile);*;
For some reason this simply does not work for me. (Yes, I made
sure that JM was the command and not "J" "M".) I've had this
problem before trying to JuMp to dialogues. What am I doing
wrong???
I got around the problem by using Tim's Terrific new command
"reopen" and let it do the jumping. Works like a charm.

Happy XyWriting,
Myron

P.S. Every time I come back to XyWrite DOS after using WPWin or
anything else and am simply astonished at the speed and ease with
 which XyWrite gets the job done. Would others of you be willing
to pay something like $30-$50 a year to keep XyWrite going? We
spend that much for magazines that are a lot less productive.
Would it make economic sense for TTG to sell "subscriptions" to
"XyWrite Upgrade" for XyWrite owners? If you subscribed you
would get at least one upgrade a year ( major or maintenance), a
couple newsletters which would include "insider" reports from
the planners and programmers about ongoing work and bug-fix
priorities, and whatever else we might think up. Some of this
might help break down the "them-and-us" barrier that has built
up between TTG and disgruntled end-users.