Re: XyWin & bug vs. feature

["Bob Brody" rabrody@xxxxxxxx]

On 16 Jan 97 at 2:10, Robert Holmgren wrote:

> What, pray, is the difference between Xy4's Page-Line Mode and
> Xy3+'s Draft [nonP-L] Mode (apart from a little horizontal line
> marking page breaks)? Please? Don't be bashful. Speak right up.

If I'm working in draft view, take a wild guess which view I want
to be working in? If I wanted to be switched into Page-Line with
annoying page breaks all over the place, then *I'll* switch to it.

The line on screen can be changed in the xwset.dfl or whatever
(df px=nn where nn is a character value for something else, say,
df px=250 for a faint almost unnoticeable center dot, etc., and is
what I'm using.) However, I do have lots of insert pages in a
draft hence short screen pages due to ≪pg≫, or ≪pg#≫ relative
page breaks, because I need to preserve page numbering and
therefore see lots of lines at various points. My understanding
of a draft mode is to not see any of this.

To be suddenly tossed into a mode I don't wish to be in (it's not
just via SAve, it's via other actions as well, not least being
jumping around in the document) is not friendly. It's also no big
deal now that I understand what's going on. I've gotten used to a
lot worse when it comes to XyWrite. But the point is when I'm in
draft mode, then I want to stay there until I explicitly wish to
change modes.

That said, I haven't much choice anyway with XyWrite now (XyWin,
at least, don't know anything about Xy4) because I work so
frequently in side-by-side text (audio/visual scripts). In Xy3
the two sides aligned on screen of course. That was one of the
reasons I switched to XyWrite (in MS Word in those days you didn't
get side-by-side alignment while writing, just in the printout).

In XyWin I have to go to page-line view in order to work with CT
columns aligned while writing. This then brings the page break
lines to screen as well. Since most word processors do the same
thing, it's something easy enough to get used to but in Xy3 the
nice thing about CT was not even having to be in Page-Line mode
and you'd still get your columns aligned while writing. Small if
neglible price to pay for other enhancements but still, the mode
I'm in is the mode I want to be in until I decide otherwise.

BTW, you can use df px=32 (space character) to eliminate the
visible line on screen but you'll see a blank line (i.e., a line
of spaces) where the pages break and that's more annoying since
it appears as though you've typo'ed an extra carriage return.
The df px=250 is rather unobtrusive and what I'm using.

Bob

p.s. The XyWin manual, Appendix B, says 250 is the full dot and
249 is the product dot (ie, small faint dot). Perhaps that has
to do with printer drivers or something, or else they have it
backwards since 250 is the small product dot and 249 is instead
the full dot. These are ASCII decimal values as well.