Re: Installing XyWin; programming puzzle

["Timothy Olson" TLO@xxxxxxxx]

I wrote a couple programs in Xy3 many years ago that work along the lines of what you're describing. . . .

One program searched through every file for a user-input character string, and recorded a log
(filename and character position) of each occurrence. From the log, the user could position the
cursor on a given line and use a S/G macro to read the filename and character position, then open
the file and jump to the place. (Of course, if substantial editing was done, subsequent character
positions in that file would be slightly off. But not too big a deal.)

Another program did almost exactly what you're describing--find instances of things where only some
of them needed fixing. (It was sort of a "proofreading" program that found various
instances of stranded punctuation, and other common "possible" errors.) It opened each
file in succession and searched for the items, then prompted the user on whether it was OK to fix in
a certain way. (When it was done with a given, file, it prompted the user as to whether to STore or
ABort before going on to the next file.) In any instance, the user could, in-effect, take the
program "offline" then have it resume where it left off. This was achieved by using the RC
[Receive Character] programming function and having a certain character be a "key." When
the "key" character was pressed, the program would, instead of doing anything, just
continue to receive and process user input (just PV [Put Value] the RC)--seeming like the program
was offline, but actually it was just cycling the RC routine u!
ntil the user pressed the "key" character again; then it would resume where it left off.
It was a rather complex program and abused memory badly (before I knew anything about memory
management), but it was extremely useful and saved a lot of time for copy editors.

Anyway, I mention these in the hope that the methods described might help you (or the other powers
on the list) write such a program for your own particular needs.

--Timothy Olson
TLO@xxxxxxxx
(630) 784-5327

>>> Patricia M Godfrey  09/20/02 09:50AM >>>
It is apparently impossible to "install" XyWin to Windows9x and above.
One has to copy an existing installation. I have found that it works best
if one has a clean copy (i.e., one installed to an older PC, running DOS,
from the floppies, but with NO printer setup and no customization files),
copy that to the 32-bit Windows machine, being careful to keep drive and
directory names the same, and then add in one's customization files.
Apparently XyWin has problems identifying new Windows printers. New on
one's system, I mean; when my Epson Stylus Color printer died, I had to
do SE d:*.* /Epson/ to find all the places in the XyWrite dir references
to it were lurking, and delete them. It then gladly recognized my Brother
Multifunction and even printed to it through the USB port. Of course, I
basically use XyWin just for printing, so it's XyDOS that is heavily
customized. And that copies OK from machine to machine, customization
files and all.
	Has any expert ever considered whether the following could be done in
XyWrite? I frequently need to examine every file (or every one of a
subset of files, for which I have my own set of extensions) in a
directory for a specific word or phrase. Some instances will need to be
changed, some will not. (This happens when I'm editing a long work and
change style partway through, so that I need to see, e.g., all instances
of "century" and make sure that the first to the ninth century are in
words and the 10th and on are in numbers). When I do SE e:*.ced /century/
I can see each instance, and open a file when I see one that's wrong. But
after I've fixed that file, how can I make the next search skip the files
I've already looked at and fixed? I suppose I could move each fixed file
to a new directory, and delete it from the old, but besides leaving me
with a plethora of directories, what about the files that were OK and
didn't need fixing? I've thought of opening a directory in one window and
stepping through it with a marker, but then I'd have to open every file,
whether or not the problem phrase was in it. Any ideas?
Patricia