Giving up on giving it up ...

["mhchoate" mhyerchoate@xxxxxxxx]

I'm a devoted XyWriter (DOS version 3.55) .... but have tried to give it
up, reluctantly ..... I have just given up on giving it up.
You guys have me worried about the future. I'm 62 or I might try harder to
wean myself from XyWrite. But to heck with it. The things I've got working
in it are just too good to give up. Nothing else does it for me -- both for
my work (indexing books) and also for some personal stuff. (I've tried
other things with disappointing results.)
I have XyWrite 3.55 on a CD, along with the first DOS I ran it with, along
with lots of XPL and C programs .... and have easily and successfully loaded
this system on three successive computers, starting around 1996....(Windows
circa 1996; Win98; and now XP).
I had no problems loading and going on any of these, except for getting
"Full Screen" mode on this last one. It ran fine immediately, but the "full
screen" mode wouldn't last. It would flash to full screen, and then within a
second or two revert. I tried to get used to it, but finding the cursor gave
me fits. Then one day, abracazam, it was miraculously fixed. I had done
nothing that should have changed anything, except a Gateway BigFix totally
unrelated to "full screen" mode in Command Prompt. I was elated. It's held
for a year or so now, but I am afraid to sneeze at it ... or to do any more
BigFixes for fear they will turn it back off. (I wrote BigFix trying to get
some insight, but they denied responsibility.)

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE -- is the following a stupid idea?

Do computers deteriorate if sitting unused, in a box? ...
I'm thinking about shopping for the cheapest laptops I can find, that still
have a Command Prompt that runs in Full Screen mode .... buy at least one
extra, and if cheap enough, another extra (etc.) ... load XyWrite .... and
have them handy on the shelf ... immediate backup ready to go ....
These laptops could be devoted to XyWrite. Anything else I could have on
another computer, with whatever latest OtherStuff I need (or am forced to
accept).  I don't print from XyWrite. I don't create PDFs. Just need the
programs I've got to keep working. And I need a way to export files to that
OtherStuff computer. I'm thinking CDs. Surely that OtherStuff computer will
be able to read CDs for a long enough time (?).
Any better ideas? I could probably learn to do all this multiple booting and
repartitioning that you guys talk about (I was a systems programmer in a
previous life) but I'd prefer simplicity.
Are we a large enough PAC to lobby Microsoft to maintain a Command Prompt
that works in Full Screen, in perpetuity?

Thanks to all. I enjoy this list.
Marge