Re: XyWrite and XML

[cld@xxxxxxxx (Carl Distefano)]

Reply to note from Patricia M Godfrey  Mon, 2
Jun 2003 18:41:41 -0400

Patricia:

> The additive modes are assigned to the following keys:" and
> then the list of CTRL I, B, U, and the + and - keys on the
> keypad (for super- and subscript).

Shows you what I know about out-of-the-box. Of course these are CUA
(Common User Access) keystrokes which put Xy in sync with rest of
the world. And, of course, to be fully CUA, the MoDes they embed
need to be additive.

> "if you DeFine some NorMal text and issue func M9 or command MD
> IT, you'll get ≪MDIT≫text≪MDNM≫. "
> Well, sure, but who writes that way?

Well, me, for one, 80 or 90 percent of the time. Generally I prefer
to see an entire sentence written out before I decide what parts
might take italics. Among other things, it's a way to guard against
the debilitating tendency to overuse visual emphasis in
argumentative writing. By the way, Ctrl+I -- that is to say,
XY4.DLG frame ITALIC -- assigns additive MoDes to DeFined blocks as
well as "on the fly", so the two aren't incompatible.

Anyway, I'm not denying the advantages of additive MoDes, only
pointing out that Xy4 still supports absolute MoDes, and that a
"conversion" routine can't be blind to that. Not to mention --
because you and Leslie already have -- the problem of files created
in Xy3.

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx
http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/