Re: XyWrite udner Linux [was:Partitioned drives, Win98 & other OSes]

["mike shupp" mikeshupp@xxxxxxxx]

The problem is.... telling an old Linux salt that XyW is a wonderfully
customisable word processor wih various neat features just isn't
going to impress. "You want customization? Use Emacs," is what
you'll likely be told. "You want features? Use Emacs."

What XyWrite is actually good for is creating thousands of words of
text per day with minimal pain -- AND THAT IS NOT WHAT THE TYPICAL
WORD PROCESSOR USER DOES OR WANTS TO DO.

What "ordinary" normal users want in a word processor is utilitarian typing,
possibly supplemented with some spell checking, and some ability to cut and
paste simple graphics. What "Power" users want is the above, with some
ability to create HTML and incorporate "living" references to exterior
documents or data (spreadsheets that update automatically as stock prices
fluctuate, for example).


Note that look-and-feel issues (ease of use, etc.) aren't especially
important to achieving these goals. Note that XyW's save-gets and
XML are totally irrelevent to them.

Let's skip a long discussion (it's late on Friday!) and jump to the
conclusion: Linux users would not jump at the opportunity to create
an XyWrite-like word processor, and if they did attempt to do so,
they'd create something that would look and act much more like
M'soft Word than XyW -- and they wouldn't understand why you and I
might be unhappy with the result.

--shupp







----Original Message Follows----
From: Wendell Cochran 
Reply-To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: XyWrite udner Linux [was:Partitioned drives, Win98 & other
	OSes]

Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 08:11:13 -0800

Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 16:08:56 -0800
From: "J. R. Fox" 

Patricia M Godfrey wrote:
>> And I'm still telling every Linux gearhead I meet that there's this
wonderful DOS word processor whose port to Linux would be a marriage
made in cyber heaven.


Several times in the last year or so I've dropped a hint to that effect
in one Linux-related list or another, but it's always been incidental to
the thread & no one's even asked `What's XyWrite?'


_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus