Re: Does XyWrite have any future?

["Patricia M. Godfrey" PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx]

Michael Edwards wrote:
> Unfortunately, XyWrite doesn't seem to get on well with my
> Windows 95, especially in 50-line mode (which I prefer), so I've never really got into using it
> seriously - and it isn't really all that practical nowadays to maintain a purely MS-DOS-based
> computer, which I think would probably be the best way of running XyWrite.
>  
I cannot imagine why you should have problems with W 95. Except, of
course, for that 50-line mode: 43 or 25 lines are the alternatives in
Xy, IIRC. Nor does one need a purely MS-DOS based computer. I run Xy on
Win 95, 98, and 98 SE, and lots of others are running it on 2000 and XP.
(Your don't want to use Win ME[ss] for ANYTHING; absolute worst piece of
reeking offal that even M$ ever foisted on hapless end-users.) Some
people have had problems with XP, but from what we can learn they seem
to be hardware- or BIOS-related.

≪I don't think XyWrite works in Linux, does it?≫
Not natively, but if you search the archives, I'm pretty sure some
people are running it in DOS or Windows emulation on Linux boxes.
≪however good it is, it is just rather impractical for most people to
use it as their main word-processor.≫
Anything longer than a business letter, I write in Xy. Any really heavy
editing, unless it has to be redlined (and in ANY program, heavily
edited copy redlined is going to be illegible), I do in Xy, first
converting from the original, then editing (and using Xy--the ONLY
program that can do it--to clean out all the unnecessary and redundant
formatting that Word or WordImPerfect or the conversion filters put in),
then converting back. If my output is not going to be edited by anyone
else (a handout for a course or talk, for example), I do it in XyWrite,
then export to PDF. Manuel uses Xy as an editing front end to Ventura
Publisher (and in ANSI, since he's working in Spanish). I believe George
Scithers mentioned that Weird Tales is still going direct from Xy to
DTP. The local paper uses WordPerfect; I write my stories in Xy (making
heavy use of autocorrect: all the town fathers' names are in a special
spelling file with their initials, so I just type HL, say, and Xy puts
"Borough Attorney Hiram H. Lawless" in the copy), then I convert them to
WP, pull them up in that, and fix the hyphenation. (WordImPerfect's
hyphenation algorithms stinck on ice; you have to do it manually, and
Xy's hyphenation doesn't, alas, convert. But this is a weekly tabloid
with 2.5-in/6 cm columns, so hyphenation is a contnuing challenge.)
≪How do they...make XyWrite work with things like e-mail, graphic-style
programs, the Internet,≫
Carl has a neat program (Hacksaw, which one of these days I'm going to
figure out how to use) that lets him compose, send, and receive e-mail
right from Xy (There are hooks to it in U2.) Graphics are a problem, but
I hardly ever use graphics. I believe Xy does have the capability to
include an EPS or TIFF graphic. (And WP is not too hot at handling them
either; mucks up the line wrapping around them something awful.) Why
would you want your word processor to work with the Internet? If you're
composing Web pages, well, see Flash's post of 6/2/05 ("Sissies use
FrontPage or Dreamweaver. HTML is not difficult to master, and with a
dozen savegets, you can code a web site faster in Xy than in
FrontPage/Dweaver. You'll also use less code doing it by hand,...")
≪Does the program usually work satisfactorily with most versions
ofWindows?≫
Absolutely. See above. Some people have also been running it on Macs
with various DOS- or Windows emulators.

≪Given that the program is no longer available...≫
Yeah, that is the real crux of the matter. TTG (The Technology Group,
the company that bought it after the IBM fiasco) went out of business,
but the owner, a lawyer named Kenneth Frank, is apparently unfindable
and unwilling to let go (dog-in-the-manger ware, I call it). Nota Bene
has a license, because Xy forms the basic engine of their product. I
have suggested before, but have gotten no response, that we approach
them about letting people buy copies of Xy from them cheaply (we'd have
to have the manuals available as PDFs, something Bry Henderson is
working on). The other alternative would be to seek out a programmer in
some country where reverse engineering is allowed, and see if
he/she/they would be interested in a port to Linux. I still maintain
that Xy in Linux native would be "a match made in heaven."

Patricia M. Godfrey