Re: xywrite and postscript

[Peter Evans peterev@xxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren writes:

>XyQuest should have stuck with word
>processing, and left visual representation up to somebody else. Nobody
howled
>louder than I did, when graphic view was introduced along with the
>button-pushing menu mentality that GUIs call a "user interface". But XyQuest
>felt that they had to compete -- and in that era, they were defending a
>reputation, not as a specialty WP, but as the very best WP in any category.

I'm sure I've read similar sentiments here before, and also those from the
opposing soapbox. There seems little point in a rehash of the latter.
However, some points might be worth making.

Let's not exaggerate the renown of Xy3. As far back as my memory goes,
Xy's reputation as "the very best WP in any category" was one that had not
reached many people. Among my own acquaintances who delighted in
customizing, reprogramming, macro-writing, etc., and who valued speed (all
areas in which Xy might be thought to excel), Sprint was just about as
popular. At least one who was (and is) a Unix lover at heart regarded MS
Word (for DOS, of course) as the least bad program among the contenders.
Meanwhile, people whose ideas of what a word processor should do were
closer to those of today's market researchers were using WordPerfect, not
XyWrite.

Yes, I was probably just one of thousands (tens of thousands?) who howled
considerably less than RH did when graphic editing was added. The whole
point about it was that it was there if you wanted it and ignorable if you
didn't want it.

I also see nothing wrong with the addition of (as opposed to a switch to) a
GUI interface. I use XyWin all the time, usually in its WYSIWYG mode,
sometimes in expanded mode, but virtually never in draft mode.

I adopted Windows only reluctantly. Having adopted it, I continued to use
numerous DOS programs. (I still use them now, with Win95.) But if Xy
hadn't sprung a Windows version, I'd probably have switched to WordPerfect
or something by now. I don't claim that this puts me in the majority of
people who were using Xy3. But I very much doubt that I'm in a small
minority.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Peter Evans