Re: XY3 keyboard for XYdos4

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Bruce Felknor wrote:

> Xy4 out of the box offered the option of installing a XY3 keyboard, as well
> as related files. These were named xy4-3.kbd, xy4-3.dfl, and the help file,
> xy4-3.hlp.

Well, I chose that KBD from the beginning, in using Xy-4, but overlooked the
other two. My expectation is that the .DFL file would contradict several
settings recommendations made in the documentation for the jumbo U2. As to the
Help File, I've gone on the record numerous times as to how much I prefer the
presentation and organization of the Xy-3 Help system.  In particular, I miss
one of the "lead" frames where you could do a Key Search by filling in that blank
line and executing it, as well as that horizontal crawl for reviewing or
selecting any Ascii/Greek/Math/Line Draw/etc. characters. I actively dislike the
Xy-4 Help Index, which is incomplete and can be frustrating. One of the longterm
Xy-projects I never got around to was making some sort of hybrid Help file,
preserving the best of both (but tilting more to the Help style of Xy-3.) I
think the Help Frames rules changed rather more than things like keyboards or
xpl, from ver. 3 to 4, one of the things that induced me to put said project off
indefinitely. (The only thing that changed more was probably the Printer
files.) Of course, U2 has its own help system, which might mitigate some of this
if/when I get more familiar with it.

Jordan