mind and XPL

[Morris Krok essence@xxxxxxxx]

from Morris Krok

 No matter what advances are made in technology, the mind of man is still
the greatest instrument that can be ever made. If it was not for the mind no
invention or discovery would be possible. The mind may think in terms or
images and pictures but does it mean that we always need icons on our
screen. The greatest thinkers are those who saw things in the mind but
outwardly they saw nothing as they we were in a trance. The ancient Hindus
were so enamoured with the powers of the mind and its faculties of
concentration, meditation and simple logic that they referred to the brain
as the 1000 petalled lotus.

 It is for this reason I love Xywrite and to me it is the nectar that poets
write about and it is the holy grail that is being searched for in the myths
and in some scriptures. There are no pictures to point to or mouse to scroll
as its essence is touch-typing where the screen only comes into play when we
spell check.

 For 50 years I have been searching to make some sense out of the mystery of
life and just recently I have come up with this thought ##. No doubt I have
been influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson who said: "think your own thought,
think what is true in your own heart is true for all men and will make
universal sense. " He also said, "watch for that glimmer that fleets across
the mind as it holds the key to genius, a genius that depends not on what
bards and sages say."

 ##"When the body is energized by the conscious breathing of fresh sunlit
air, and internally cleansed by copious amounts of light water so that time
no longer intrudes, catch those treasured fleeting thoughts flowing
uninterruptedly on its own volition from the purified mind - they are
nuggets of gold, icons of intelligence, and cherished moments of golden
consciousness."

 The above quotation is based on yoga when through the processes of thought
without any mechanical aids they discovered wonderful truths of life, many
of which are not even universally accepted today. They found thousand of
years ago that the mind can control the breath and conversely the breath can
control the mind. Consequently when we do not eat before midday and replace
food with conscious breathing and the drinking of plain water we enhance the
thinking principle which will boost all creative work such as the arts,
writing and lucid programming and also the use of logic to see the errors
that man constantly makes. These ancients found that too much food essence
dulls the senses and befogs the brain. They discovered how one can live long
healthy lives without the use of vaccines, medicine, and supplements over
three thousand years. Consequently they did not fear the unseen or microbes
as anything that enhances the power of the mind will do so for the body.

 It is with sadness to hear how unreliable disk and even CD storage can be.
Possibly the climate and mildew may have some bearing on it. It for this
reason that lawyers, attorneys say "put it in writing", especially when it
comes to immovable property and fixed assets, even if it is only in fine
print and a magnify glass is needed to read it. In other words nothing is
more clear and beautiful than when it it in plain back and white. No one
wants to read books that are written in every other colour of the rainbow.
In fact black is not one of the colours of the spectrum. I have books from
the 1800's and they are clear and unblemished as if they have just been
printed. With what digital technology has to offer, it seems that there
still is a place for papyrus, quill pens, pencils, ball pens and clay
tablets. The icons of Windows and Road signs have taken the place of
hieroglyphics and the pictograms of China and Japan.

 Since 1950, I have been involved in almost every form of putting black on
white, it is nostalgic to think of the black and red ribbons of the nanual
Royals and Remingtons, the waxed stencils of the duplicator where
impressions were made merely by pressing typewriter keys where the use of
the ribbon was turned off. The electric typewrite appeared in the 1960's.
But I also worked on offset litho, burning the negatives and positives and
making the metal plates. Now I have the pleasure to have the use of lazer
printers and a digital printer such as made by Riso. The latter scans the
image and from the master it makes we can print over 5000 pages under an
hour. This printer is a wonderful instrument to infringe copywrite matter as
a book can be broken up and the pages can be printed without retyping or
editing. In minutes now with the use of the internet and the web we can
communicate with persons throughout the world. But we still need logical
thought to give some real meaning to what is communicated. Since the
beginninhg of time simple logic has bypassed mankind, and even today
misconception and superstition is still rife even in the minds of the
learned and scientific.

 An out of print book or an out of date program that have no real commercial
value, I have no hesitation to reprint or produce to the few connoisseurs
who relish and see the intrinsic worth in what can be called "discarded
treasure". I regard XyWrite in this category also the book written by Herb
Tyson who says the programs you write mirrors the way you think. Books that
also fall in this category are those that deal with yoga and natural living
where nothing exotic or special is used to maintain the body and mind in
their highest potential. After all this what we are all seeking, even if we
are not conscious of it, the efficient functioning of mind and body.

 A month or so ago Rene enquired regarding the possibility of a program
being written in XPL that can translate. I have just tested such a program
written by Valmond Ghyoot of South Africa who has written a program to
translate English into Afrikaans. It works but I am sure the gurus can
improve it by writing it more simpler and compact. Basically what it does is
to replace the English word with the Afrikaans equivalent and at times two
equivalents. Where there is no Afrikaans equivalent, the English word
remains unchanged. Using the personal dictionary would be the key aspect
but instead of the abbreviation the English word would be used as the
abbreviation and the foreign word as the long form.

 The way I think such a program should be written is by replacing all the
English words with their own abbreviations. A new personal dictionary must
be written whereby these English abbreviations are used as the Afrikaans
abreviations. For instance if the abbreviation for truth is "tru", then
"tru" would be the abbreviation for waarheid (Afrikaans). So the first part
of the program would change truth to "tru" and the second part of the
program would change "tru" to waarheid.

 Now isn't this what a good word processor is suppose to be able to
accomplish. In the case of XyWrite it can do so without a mouse or an icon
because of its logic flow of functions and commands.

 If anyone is interested I can send his zipped program that contains the
dictionaries, the program and read me file. It works though when not in
expanded mode it says "invalid formatting command".

 The code below is what I use to expand shortforms into their longform
equivalents that is when I type in shorthand and expand the passage by
pressing one key at the end of each page or whenever I see fit. I believe it
can be used as a basis to change the words of one language into another.
 NW CL AR CR BC se .WA.
>BCjmp XC 
.

 NW = function to go to next word.
 CL = function for cursor to go one space to left
 AR = function to expand shortform
 CR = function for cursor to go one space to the right
 BC = Clear the Command line.
 se = is the search command on the command line to search for WA (function)
for the next character.
 "if er"(error) or no longer character present go out of the loop and
jump(jmp) to another part of the program or position in the text or in some
cases to exit the program altogether.

 Valmond also makes minor changes to the grammar of the translated page so
that it makes sense according to the Afrikaans language.