Re: Undocumented keyboard functions NB 3.0 - knowledgebase needed

[Myron Gochnauer goch@xxxxxxxx]

Others may correct me, but my recollection (from the XyWrite side) is
that NB never used the XY 4 engine, but stuck with Xy 3 code until it
went to Windows.


I imagine this was for economic reasons. Most of NB's programming
investment seems to go into the "penumbra" rather than the core.


In many ways this strategy has resulted in a superior product: Dave
Erickson had the wonderfully good sense to insist that the core code
of the program remain "lean, mean and masterful", while providing
efficient ways to add on an amazing variety of "features", especially
via XPL language. If XyWrite / The Technology Group / DragonFly had
been able to sustain a large enough market to support the necessary
programming, the core engine/code could have been perfected and kept
up to date to produce a program that would make Word look like the
flotilla of rafts that contemporary programming favors.


Unfortunately, our little corner of the word-processing market it too
small to support the complete modernization of the core coding in one
"swell foop". Even now, the Windows version of NB is not fully
modernized to Windows 95 standards, even as the Windows world is
moving toward 64-bit programs. [ Example: Running under Parallels
and WinXP on a MacBook Pro, NB 8 cannot read files stored in the Mac
documents folder. [The same thing happens using VMWare Fusion to run
WinXP on the Mac. ] No other Windows program I have tried has this
problem. NB (and XyDOS 3/4) have always had this problem. Parallels
provides transparent access for standard Windows file and directory
routines. NB appears to be using non-standard routines, which is just
asking for trouble.


BTW, I have almost all of the XyWrite documentation from II+ onward,
and can scan whatever is not already available to the list. I bought
II+ back in 1984 or so ($300!!), and kept upgrading until the end. I
did not start with NB until 6.0.


Myron


On Jul 10, 2009, at 6:52 PM, M.W. Poirier wrote:

>  I think that NB 4.5a is more akin to XY3, and I am not sure that
> there
>
>  was a DOS version of NB that was comperable to XY4. I believe that
>  after version 4.5a, NB moved to Windows. Carl may be the best person
>  to inform us about this matter.
>
>  M. W. Poirier
>
>
> --------------------
> On Fri, 10 Jul 2009, Kari Eveli wrote:
>
> > > I love to hear people say nice things about Nota Bene! Thanks!
> > > Quite a
>  few people have told us that version 8 is much more user-friendly
> than
>  earlier versions. With regard to documentation, we do have 600
> pages of
>
>  printable documentation in NB format and PDF format. And the same
>  material is also available in HLP (on screen) format.
> > NB is and has always been a polished product for those who like to
> > use
>  the software right out of the box. Back in the good old days it had
>  three-ring binders with well nigh 1000 pages of documentation. I
> tried
>
>  the DOS NB 4.x product, but it was too complicated to reprogram.
>  Deloading some features proved to be impossible, so I am stuck with a
>  copy of NB 3.0 which has everything I need. Trying newer versions of
>  XyWrite and studying their documentation was useful in the sense
> that I
>
>  discovered features that were included, but not documented. Indeed, a
>  more thorough knowledgebase of the different versions would be
> helpful.
>
>
>  NB 3.0 is most akin to Xy 3+, but I for one do not have the printed
> Xy
>  3+ documentation, and it seems to me, it is not online anywhere in
> its
>  entirety. PDF versions of all manuals would be the first step
> followed
>
>  by a scrutiny for lacking or erroneous information. A thesaurus of
>  XyWrite/N.B. documentation is a goal worth striving for.
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Kari Eveli
> > LEXITEC Book Publishing (Finland)
> > lexitec@xxxxxxxx
> >
> > *** Lexitec Online ***
> > English summary of our services: http://www.lexitec.fi/sitesummary.html
> > FileOpen-based ebook packaging and support: http://www.lexitec.fi/fileopen.html
> > Acrobat Reader Treasure Trove: http://www.lexitec.fi/acrobat-reader.html
> > English-Finnish-English Computer Terms: http://www.lexitec.fi/glossary.html
> > Home page (in Finnish): http://www.lexitec.fi/