Re: XyWrite versions

[Wendell Cochran atrypa@xxxxxxxx]

On Tue, 22 Jul 1997, Anthony Hyde wrote:

> ** Reply to note from PMYG@xxxxxxxx Mon, 21 Jul 1997 19:23:57 -0400 (EDT)

> I certainly wouldn't feel able to write a full account of all the versions of
> XyWrite, though I'm sure someone on this list could do so. I began using the
> program as XyWrite II, editor.exe bearing a date stamp of 01-01-80,
> although the copyright screen reads (C) 1983. The next version was XyWrite
> II+, with editor.exe being stamped in 1984. From here the program went to
> XyWrite III, III+, Signature, IV, and XyWrite for Windows. XyWrite began as
> a software version (I suppose some would say "rip-off") of a dedicated
> wordprocessing machine that was enormously popular in newspaper offices.
> I think -- stress think -- the machine was Atax, or something like that.


For what it's worth -- Atex, then in Redmond, Wash.

In 1981 I bought 2 Atex machines for $10,000 each, rejoicing in the
enormous capacity of the hard disks (10Kb), & used them in editing
& producing a monthly news magazine for geologists.

We transmitted copy (& type specs) from Bailey's Crossroads, Va., to
Byrd Press in Springfield, about 10 miles away (modem speed, 300 bps).
The saving in typesetting costs paid for both machines in less than a
year. (Hardly 2 years earlier we were still using hot type.)

I believe the original Atex system -- hardware, software, & all --
was commissioned by U.S. News & World Report, but I first saw it in
use (in 1979) by the Chronicle of Higher Education, on Massachusetts
Avenue NW in D.C.

The software came installed on the hard disk, though we had backups on
8-inch floppies. If the program had a name we didn't know it, & in
December 1990 I did not recognize XyWrite III+ from my time with Atex.
I did feel right at home with XyW, & was writing within an hour or so of
installation.

I'll be glad if someone can confirm that the Atex program was a
predecessor of XyWrite, & can tell me what it was called in 1981.

Wendell Cochran
West Seattle