Re: Does XyWrite have any future?

["Harriet Hodges" kapok@xxxxxxxx]

I use XW with ME. Hate ME, of course, but wasn't aware that it was any worse
than any of the other programs. Should I switch back? Forward?

I am a professional indexer/editor. Have written many mini-programs for
indexing.) I too use XW for originals and then convert to MS Word or to
Cindex. I am spoiled with its flexibility, expansiveness.

Harriet Hodges

----- Original Message -----
From: "Patricia M. Godfrey" 
To: 
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2005 2:49 PM
Subject: Re: Does XyWrite have any future?


> Michael Edwards wrote:
>
> >Unfortunately, XyWrite doesn't seem to get on well with my
> >Windows 95, especially in 50-line mode (which I prefer), so I've never
really got into using it seriously - and it isn't really all that practical
nowadays to maintain a purely MS-DOS-based computer, which I think would
probably be the best way of running XyWrite.
> >
> >
> I cannot imagine why you should have problems with W 95. Except, of
> course, for that 50-line mode: 43 or 25 lines are the alternatives in
> Xy, IIRC. Nor does one need a purely MS-DOS based computer. I run Xy on
> Win 95, 98, and 98 SE, and lots of others are running it on 2000 and XP.
> (Your don't want to use Win ME[ss] for ANYTHING; absolute worst piece of
> reeking offal that even M$ ever foisted on hapless end-users.) Some
> people have had problems with XP, but from what we can learn they seem
> to be hardware- or BIOS-related.
>
> ≪I don't think XyWrite works in Linux, does it?≫
>
> Not natively, but if you search the archives, I'm pretty sure some
> people are running it in DOS or Windows emulation on Linux boxes.
>
> ≪however good it is, it is just rather impractical for most people to
> use it as their main word-processor.≫
>
> Anything longer than a business letter, I write in Xy. Any really heavy
> editing, unless it has to be redlined (and in ANY program, heavily
> edited copy redlined is going to be illegible), I do in Xy, first
> converting from the original, then editing (and using Xy--the ONLY
> program that can do it--to clean out all the unnecessary and redundant
> formatting that Word or WordImPerfect or the conversion filters put in),
> then converting back. If my output is not going to be edited by anyone
> else (a handout for a course or talk, for example), I do it in XyWrite,
> then export to PDF. Manuel uses Xy as an editing front end to Ventura
> Publisher (and in ANSI, since he's working in Spanish). I believe George
> Scithers mentioned that Weird Tales is still going direct from Xy to
> DTP. The local paper uses WordPerfect; I write my stories in Xy (making
> heavy use of autocorrect: all the town fathers' names are in a special
> spelling file with their initials, so I just type HL, say, and Xy puts
> "Borough Attorney Hiram H. Lawless" in the copy), then I convert them to
> WP, pull them up in that, and fix the hyphenation. (WordImPerfect's
> hyphenation algorithms stinck on ice; you have to do it manually, and
> Xy's hyphenation doesn't, alas, convert. But this is a weekly tabloid
> with 2.5-in/6 cm columns, so hyphenation is a contnuing challenge.)
>
> ≪How do they...make XyWrite work with things like e-mail, graphic-style
> programs, the Internet,≫
>
> Carl has a neat program (Hacksaw, which one of these days I'm going to
> figure out how to use) that lets him compose, send, and receive e-mail
> right from Xy (There are hooks to it in U2.) Graphics are a problem, but
> I hardly ever use graphics. I believe Xy does have the capability to
> include an EPS or TIFF graphic. (And WP is not too hot at handling them
> either; mucks up the line wrapping around them something awful.) Why
> would you want your word processor to work with the Internet? If you're
> composing Web pages, well, see Flash's post of 6/2/05 ("Sissies use
> FrontPage or Dreamweaver. HTML is not difficult to master, and with a
> dozen savegets, you can code a web site faster in Xy than in
> FrontPage/Dweaver. You'll also use less code doing it by hand,...")
>
> ≪Does the program usually work satisfactorily with most versions
> ofWindows?≫
>
> Absolutely. See above. Some people have also been running it on Macs
> with various DOS- or Windows emulators.
>
> ≪Given that the program is no longer available...≫
>
> Yeah, that is the real crux of the matter. TTG (The Technology Group,
> the company that bought it after the IBM fiasco) went out of business,
> but the owner, a lawyer named Kenneth Frank, is apparently unfindable
> and unwilling to let go (dog-in-the-manger ware, I call it). Nota Bene
> has a license, because Xy forms the basic engine of their product. I
> have suggested before, but have gotten no response, that we approach
> them about letting people buy copies of Xy from them cheaply (we'd have
> to have the manuals available as PDFs, something Bry Henderson is
> working on). The other alternative would be to seek out a programmer in
> some country where reverse engineering is allowed, and see if
> he/she/they would be interested in a port to Linux. I still maintain
> that Xy in Linux native would be "a match made in heaven."
>
> Patricia M. Godfrey
>
>
>
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