'The Xy Files'

[Carl Distefano CLDistefano@xxxxxxxx]

Just returned from vacation to find Amy Virshup's article waiting in
the mailbox. The "cult" metaphor was a cheap shot -- repeat after me,
"We are NOT a cult" -- but cleverly sustained. I had a good laugh. I
especially liked the part about devils and suffering for one's faith.
(Nonsense, of course. You don't need to lay hands on the CD-ROM drive,
just mumble the right prayers and put a colon in CONFIG.SYS. Or,
better still, leave the system alone and pick the juiciest files
directly from the tree of knowledge at TTG's Web site.)

Overall, the piece had the feel of a lapsed Catholic trying to explain
the catechism. Errors, of commission and omission, crept in; certain
formulations were potentially misleading and doctrinally suspect; the
mention of F5 without a concomitant reference to F9 was like the sound
of one hand clapping. Nevertheless, the sketches of individual users
did manage to capture the zeal and ardor of this command-driven
diaspora. The woman who downgraded her processor to get Xy running
typifies the Teresa of Avila school of software installation. But her
reward, no doubt, was great. "If thy fast Pentium offends thee, pluck
it out...."

Well, it's hot in here and there's coffee and doughnuts waiting in the
basement, so I'll conclude by pointing out the single best result of
Amy's article: Forget "SmartWords". Habemus nominem. The next
release of a free-standing, cross-platform, Xy-based word-processor
simply *has* to be called ... Velociraptor!

All rise.

--------------
Carl Distefano
CLDistefano@xxxxxxxx
http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/