Re: XyWrite and Ventura 8 (Re: search/replace program)

[WooF owlswick@xxxxxxxx]

On Fri, 5 Apr 2002 fenda@xxxxxxxx wrote:

> George,
> I am using XyWrite 4.018 and Ventura 5. I would like to know your
> proceedings to manage two way conversions from/to XyWrite and Ventura 8.
> Thanks in advance,
> Manuel Castelao

Ventura 8 can read and covert a XyWrite III file to Ventura's
format. XyWrite III can read a Ventural ".txt" file. But (of
course) there are some problems:

I have been converting XyWrite's double-pointy-bracketed
commands to  or  or  (go to italics, go to bold, and go
back to the default font) with the usual XyWrite
search-and-replace commands. Ventura 8 can read these with no
trouble -- and you can see how Ventura 8 has modified these by
looking at the Ventura ".txt" files.

In principle, you could simply turn on the Ventura 8 conversion
toggle to let Ventura convert the unpolarized " marks to opening
and closing quotes and also convert the -- marks to 1/M dashes
(which Ventura 8 codes as <@151>). Unfortunately, while it will
convert an apostrophe that appears between two lettters (as in
"don't") to a closing single-quote -- which curves like this: )
-- it will also convert any apostrople that appears with a space
in front of it (as in "That 'tain't yours") to an opening
single-quote mark -- which curves like this: ( -- which is wrong.
Also the built-in conversion routine hasn't the remotest idea
what to do with unpolarized double-quotes that are neither
preceded nor followed by a space or a return.

Therefore, what I do is a search-and-replace in XyWrite,
converting [space]" to [space]<@147> and [enter]" to
[enter]<@147>. Then search-and-replace "[space] to <@148>[space]
and "[enter] to <@148>[enter]. You can, of course, do these as
change invisible commands, and you can type up a simple program
to do all four of these, triggered by a single macro.

Next, I do a search for any " left over -- for example, a
parenthesis followed by a " mark followed by a word, with no
intervening spaces will remain a " when you run the procedure in
the preceding paragraph. All these are best handled one by one --
you'll probably pick up a few typos while you're at it, like a
space missing in front of or after a " mark.

Then I do a search-and-replace (change visible, this time) for
any apostrophe preceded by a space (and then, Just In Case, for
one preceded by a [return] or by a > -- replacing any that should
indeed be converted to opening-SINGLE-quotes, which in
Ventura-8-speak is <@146>. Then I run a change-invisible to
covert all the remaining apostrophes to <@147> (in theory, one
COULD let Ventura do that on its own, but Things Can And Do Go
Wrong, so . . .)

Next, I do a change VISIBLE to convert all the dashes (whether
you're using -- or --- for them) to the Ventura code <@151>. The
reason for doing this as a change-visible is that you will
probably have to fiddle with some of the dashes, especially ones
that immediately precede a paragraph break. My magazine's style
puts spaces before and after dashes -- but closes the dash up
against a preceding partial word if the dash signifies a broken
(not hyphenated) word, as when something interrupts a speaker in
mid-word. We also have no space between a dash and a following
close-quote, and have no space between a dash and a following
[enter]. It's a Good Idea to convert every
[space][dash][close-quote] and [space][dash][enter] combination
to [dash][close-quote] and [dash][enter] to prevent a dash
from appearing by itself as the last line of a paragraph. (The
 is Ventura-speak for a no-breaking space.)

Obvoiusly, I'm typesetting a fiction magazine, with lots of
dialog. For me, the big reason for surrounding mid-sentence
dashes with spaces is that it makes justifying the type a LOT
easier.

 Stay (reasonably) wicked on Wotansdays,
George H Scithers of owlswick@xxxxxxxx