Re: A radical idea: a new XyWrite

[Russell Urquhart russurquhart1@xxxxxxxx]

> > There are three main reasons why I, at least, want to stick with XyWrite:
> > 1. XPL (and U2)
> > 2. Command line operation
> > 3. Infinite customizability
> > Now, if we're talking about creating a text editor from scratch, I'm
> > speculating that 2 and 3 are easily achieved.
> >


Hi All,

While i haven't used Xy for about 10 plus years now, I still feel for it and the group.

I remember having a conversation with the group some time back. (I'm sure someeone can find that
conversation.) At that time, it was my understanding, that Xy 4 had been written in C (or at least
what was Signature had been ported from assembly to C.) I was told that some individual(s) in this
group had a copy of the C source, or had seen it, etc. And for whatever reason, maybe fear of legal
action, did nothing with it. I also remember saying that we ought to try and get the source into an
OpenSource project and allow developers to augment and develop xy. That idea was kind of
pooh-poohed.

Now many of the same ideas we hashed about then, are coming back around again. Good luck.

I loved XY but, at the time, had the need to edit and work with XML files. Large XML files. I, too,
liked the command line feel XY provided, and the speed, scriptability, customizability, etc.

Ultimately, for me, the answer was Vim. People like, use and swear by Vim for many of the same
reasons that i liked XY. I approached the learning curve for Vim (not unlike the learning curve for
Xy) with the notion that i would eventually port my favorite xlp scripts to Vim. I ended up not
having to do that as there was/is already a gazillion scripts, plugins, etc.

Vim is alreafy cross platform, and i can even use a version on my iPhone! Vim, in addition to its
own scripting language, vimscript, has support for scriptiing in python, perl, lua, etc.
As i've seen some very complex script/plugins done for Vim, I would think a configuration script to
make Vim more Xy like would be accessible and doable for novice programmers.

(I am currently using Vim for my writing. There are growing band of users for Vim, that are using it
as a writing tool.)

I would encourage the Xy users to take a look at Vim. I think Vim could be made to act/emulate XY. I
think, if you give it a try and try and learn Vim and its native keystrokes you'll find you can
become MORE proficient than Xy. (Or at least that was my experience.) If not i think it would make a
suitable environment to emulate XY.

fwiw,


Russ