Re: Menus (not) in Xy4

[OkAnnie@xxxxxxxx]

After I wrote, "The lone prize that could motivate me to compete
is total liberation of v4 from dialog boxes and menus" ... Carl
replied, "Annie, I don't see the issue. Xy4 doesn't require
dialog boxes and menus, any more than III+ requires A la Carte.
Just don't load the .MNU and .DLG files, that's all; they're
fully detachable. There's nothing those files do that can't be
done directly from the command line, or with a little XPL."

Hi, Carl: The question of a v4 @ dir listing a la v3 SD came up
once before on the list. At that time, I could get one with SD
and possibly with a
   76=NI,JM,(,T,M,A,C,R,D,E,F,)
.kb4 entry. I've turned off everything I can find in configxd.pr4
(what the file is called--settings.df?) that seems to relate to
menus and dialog boxes,
I guess since then. Whatever, now the function and command both
produce an
"application error" msg. Perhaps I'm missing something--that does
happen at times ;)--but a v4 @ dir eludes me. I use three @s (and
only three) steadily, two for scratch (one for xpl scratch).
Darned if I know how to preview what's in them short of opening a
.tmp and dropping them in--obviously unacceptable.


I'm too new to v4 to be able to cite other examples, but I doubt
that's the only thing shut off by turning off dialog boxes. I
don't know if this is related, but it feels like it is: If
there's a way to get a readout of an ascii char subset (as with
v3 BC special HL), I haven't found it. Special, ascii, character,
etc. all come up empty with HL. If I load my .hl3, I can view the
subset, but no corresponding number appears at the prompt. To see
both char and number I must BC do a utility I wrote in C that
shows various char info for programming (and does hex or decimal
arithmetic). Without my
AH.EXE ... ? xyWrite 3 certainly is fully functional without A La
Carte. I'm less sure than you that that is true of xy4 with dlg
turned off. I suspect the answer is Robert's "But OTOH, you can
also load them and just not use them much, or at all, until you
find something useful[. ...]" Being able to open 2,342,058 bytes
of XY4.HLP without a whimper is not chopped liver. ...

Tim makes a specialty of .dlg programming. I expect his new stuff
to be heavy on it and more power to him. My bias is my own; the
entire xyWorld needn't share it. I just deplore .dlg as the main
thrust of xy4 programming, either user or developer, but there
you jolly well are, aren't you. (And anyone who can cite the
reference for that fragment and wants one can have--aoMail
permitting--a no-strings copy of AH.EXE.)    --A

========================== annie fisher  nyc