Re: Change Invisibles: migrating from Xy 3.55 to 4.017

[Leslie Bialler lb136@xxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren wrote:

>
> In the first instance, you use 1-byte 174/175 guillemets. They work.
> In the second instance, you are putting 3-byte 174/175 into your program.
> It's a tenet of XyWrite that if you move 3-byte characters from text to
> the command line (as happens when you use BC ... XC in a program written in the text window),
> they are transformed from 3-byte to 1-byte chars -- thus it works; whereas if you use BX ...Q2,
> they remain 3-byte chars and therefore it doesn't work. This is simply a
> matter of correct coding, not of any flaw in BX ...Q2.
>

Understood. And thanks for taking the time to explain.


>
> At this moment, I can recall only one instance where BC ...XC is necessary, namely:
> CD commands (Change_Directory) sometimes need to be issued on the
> CMline, especially when a DIRectory is displayed in the text window. But otherwise BX ...Q2 is
> absolutely flawless, and in every respect superior and preferable (faster, less disruptive,
> capable of executing commands much longer than the CMline could accommodate) to BC ...XC. I'd
> wager that every time BX "fails", there's actually a coding error.
>

I find BX/Q2 especially useful for operations that involve mode, style, or case changes. For
example, on my kbd, I have a series of macros that deal with styling headings that authors insist
on calling to my attention by centering them in boldface in all caps, although our instructions
specifically ask them to not do this. It's very useful _not_ to end up with a cc on the command
line instead of the desired se /MDBO/, say.

If anybody's interested in these, let me know---but not till March 27, please! We are moving our
offices next week and it will doubtless take a few days to, er, um, reorganize. (See below.)

--
Leslie Bialler, Columbia University Press
lb136@xxxxxxxx
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