Re: migarte to Xy4

[jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Norman Bauman wrote:

> I've written a lot of macros for Xy3. I probably spent 3-400 hours, and my
> daily work is pretty highly automated.
>
> In contrast, when I move to other programs, like WordPerfect for Windows
> which I also use daily for tables and stuff, or Netscape, I have to do
> everything manually and it's annoying. (I could learn to write WP macros
> too, but I'm never going to put 300 hours into it again.)

Agreed.

> If I moved from Xy3 to Xy4 DOS, I'd have to rewrite my macros, would't I?
> And if I moved to XyWin, I certainly couldn't use the old macros, right?

What kind of macros ? (XY has about 5 or 6 different types, at least. You
can "program" and automate things in your kbd. file, with the Macro Recorder,
in standalone routines {althouth given the jumbo .U2 file approach, I guess
this is now considered passe}, Save/Gets, programs loaded onto upper-level
Save/Gets, Help File frames, and I'm probably overlooking a couple other
options.

This is an unscientific estimate, but I would expect 80% or more of your XY-3
macros to continue working the same way in XY-4. (Take it from me: I bought
the XY-4 upgrade around the time ver. 4.011 came out, but took a leisurely
three years before I was convinced or became comfortable with really making
the changeover. And that was about 2.5 years too long. Since then, I rarely
have occasion to use 3.5x. It's still a great little editor, probably the
best thing anywhere near its size ever written, but XY-4 is superior in just
about every respect. About the only advantage that 3.5x has is that you can
have everything you might need on a 1.44 floppy, with plenty of room left
over. Even there, XY4DOS comes close, if you keep to the bare essentials. No
1 meg. .U2 files, though !)

I think there were some significant changes to XPL, between versions 3 & 4.
If that's the type of programming you do, you might have to make more in the
way of revisions. (I'm not the best person to ask about that, since I don't
do XPL, though I'm happy to lift working pieces of it here and there.) If
memory serves, certain Help Frame types were either disallowed, or had their
rules changed. I don't mess with that too much either, since the 3.5x days.
The version 4 Printer Files and Help Frames look noticeably more complicated
to me than their ver. 3 counterparts. Outside of that, you should be in
business more quickly and easily than you might think.

XyWin is a different animal, and I can't really comment on that.


Jordan Fox