Re: XYWRITE digest 2541

[MGochnauer goch@xxxxxxxx]

> > Proper handling of long filenames awaits rewriting some of the core
> > XyWrite "engine" so that it is fully 32-bit.
> Why so? Win95 was not "fully 32bit" and it did long filenames.
Good point. But that was what I was told by someone at NB. Perhaps
the job is not seen as being worth the effort unless it is part of a
more important upgrade.
> > 3) The XyWrite core was written in Assembler, and few programmers
> > today are comfortable with such low-level programming.
>
> Dave Erickson, the creator of Xy, works for them now.
Yes, but in an email exchange with him a few years ago I learned that
he was mostly involved in the interface (menus, helpscreens, etc.),
not the core.
> Expecting Dave Erickson or anyone else to attempt this is about as
> practical as
> fitting a Model T with anti-lock brakes.
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your point, but rewriting what NB used
to call the "XyWrite engine" would be more like constructing an
entirely new Ford that kept all the favorite features of the Model
T. The metaphor breaks down quickly, but the basic idea seems clear
enough: XyWrite provided *functionality* that very explicitly
recognized the needs and expectations of people who write a great
deal, and who could benefit from customizing their wordprocessors in
highly individual ways. The ideas about how writing can be
facilitated can stand on their own and be realized in a variety of
operating systems. As systems become more powerful there is no reason
why we should have to give up good ideas about writing at a keyboard.
Ideally, we would be able to create a list of capabilities, functions
and user procedures that we would like to see in writing software,
and the software people would look at the current hardware and "make
it so": Xywrite for Linux, MAC, WinXP, WinVista etc.
> The one enduring thing that Xywrite gave us was the command line
> interface,
> which is remarkably efficient.
Even here it is the idea that counts:  It is efficient to be able to
control the program by typing words, letters and/or numbers that
"tell the program what you want done" (ie commands).  Change line
spacing to 1.5: hit the "Pay Attention!" key, type "LS 1.5" and hit
the "make it so!" key. If this were being real-ized in the Windows
world today, it would probably be a pop-up box rather than a command
line. But psychologically, using commands is quite different from
making menu choices, even if you create single-keycombination
shortcuts for the choices.

Myron