Re: Xy5 progress--and a query for you

[J R FOX jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

James,

My initial thought was that I recalled A La Carte Menus as being a set of training wheels for
beginners with the program --
unless one might have been a fan of XyWin, and its modus operandi. Generally though, I think you
raise some good
points.

The periodic MS fiddling with file formats has been such that I think even Open Office and Libre
Office (trying to be
fully compatible) had difficulty in accommodating Docx.

  Jordan

--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 12/13/18, James Woolley  wrote:

 Subject: Re: Xy5 progress--and a query for you
 To: xywrite@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
 Date: Thursday, December 13, 2018, 7:20 PM

 Harry--

 I hope we are designing a program that will be attractive to (and
 usable by) a wider group than the XyW veterans on this list. For this
 wider group, the program would need to be versatile, and there would
 need to be more than one way of doing things. Considering that modern
 applications all have some sort of menu system, it seems to me that
 it might be desirable for us to pay more and include the menus. But I
 say that not knowing how much more they would cost.

 In the absence of menus, there would certainly have to be a very good
 built-in context-sensitive help system and a very good manual. To
 answer your question, in Nota Bene 12, I ignore many of the features,
 but those features I do use I get to via the menus.

 So far, we haven't gone into great detail about what features of Nota
 Bene 12 would be jettisoned and what features would be preserved. My
 preferences regarding the capabilities that form the main headings of
 the Nota Bene 12 Help are

 KEEP:
 Editing; Formatting; Headers and Footers; Footnotes and Endnotes;
 Styles; Numbering; Spell Check; Printing; Customization and Programming (= XPL)

 LOSE:
 Manuscript Files; Tables and Columns; Frameworks and Outlines;
 Academic Styles; Math Functions; Images/Objects and Frames; Index and
 Table of Contents; Orbis; Ibidem; Ibid Plus; Lingua; Archiva

 I would also very much want to see a full conversion to and from
 .docx, the lack of which keeps Nota Bene from realizing its potential
 as an attractive and powerful front end for Word. I recognize of
 course that quite possibly no one will share these particular preferences :)

 Thanks again for pushing this project along, Harry.

 James


 At 13 12 2018    13 08:47 PM, you wrote:
 >The XyWrite 5 project is (from my estimation) more than half done.
 >Don't hold me to that, but it looks that way now. I think we already
 >have 85% of what we want--though the program may not hold up under testing.
 >
 >But for what we're paying, we can't get the A La Carte menuing
 >system. That would add a huge overhead of complexity. I never, ever
 >use it--but perhaps there's someone out there for whom A La Carte is
 >very important. I'm particularly concerned about those who have
 >expressed interest in funding this: do any of you care about A La Carte?
 >
 >Regards,
 >Harry