Re: Reorganize (Formerly: No TrueType 141?)

[Robert Holmgren holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to note from Peter Evans Wed, 19 Nov 1997 23:01:15 +0900

> I must confess that I'd forgotten about XyWWWeb. I rushed
> there some months ago (almost as soon as it was announced),
> and ... found that something called Reorganize was a must ...

Logging on to XyWWWeb just now, I realize that we've failed to explain
_why_ Reorganize is a must -- a grievous and stupid omission. Installation
of Reorganize is not an initiation rite or an arbitrary exercise!

The essential problem is that Xy4 and XyWin fail entirely to provide any
built-in method of passing user arguments to or between frames (individual
programs) in the various program libraries such as U2. Reorganize supplies
that mechanism. Our insistence on installation is partially practical, to
enable our programs to run, but also a frank attempt to impose a clear &
simple standard handler on arguments. Almost six years of intensive
experience with this standard have confirmed its adequacy, flexibility, and
compatibility with older methods of launching programs (such as RUN);
remarkably, we've never discovered any bugs in the parsers (the core
handler programs), and they've required only very minor extensions to
manage unforeseen situations.

There have to be standards. Otherwise, we can't run each other's programs
except in the old troglodytic memory-depleting RUN and LDPM fashion, which
is like flying with one burning engine on a thimble of gas. That's why
Reorganize was, and is, and likely will remain under Xy5, a must.

See PARSEFRM.DOC (in REORGNZ2.ZIP) at http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/ for
full explanations. Here's the first paragraph of PARSEFRM.DOC:

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Many XyWriters have discovered that it is simpler to collect all of
their XPL programming routines in a single library file operated by
XyWrite's Help system, than to individually launch disk-based programs with
the RUN command or to scatter routines on LDPM functions that gobble up
memory. The potential advantages of the single-file approach are obvious:
Fewer paths+filenames to remember, fewer keystrokes to punch. Programming
doesn't get lost on your hard disk. Routines "talk" to each other,
i.e. structured programming is possible. Parent routines readily control
child routines (subroutines). Operations may be divided into small
modules, to avoid Out-of-Memory phenomena. The length of the library
doesn't matter, so you needn't anguish over whether to keep routines.
Speed is high -- extremely high if you LOAD the library on a RAM disk
and/or use a large memory cache. Tax on the XPL memory buffer is very
small. Different versions of XyWrite (e.g. for DOS and for Windows) can
share compatible programming resources . . .

Unfortunately, there are FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTUAL PROBLEMS with the Help
system. Lest you wonder why you are reading this, let me say that
PaRSEFRaMe solves them all. But it is important to understand why and how.

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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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