Re: code as an asset

["Patricia M. Godfrey" pmgodfrey@xxxxxxxx]

Since TTG, like all other software vendors, always insisted we didn't
own, but only licensed, the program, doesn't that make us lien-holders
ourselves in some way? Especially as we also did not enjoy (per the EULA)
the usual warranty of merchantability? I think a good lawyer could make a
case along those lines, but given what lawyers charge, it might be
cheaper to bid. On the other hand, perhaps the Free Software Foundation
might be interested in supporting us: I've always said XyWrite and Linux
was a marriage made in heaven, though I gather from several postings here
that the DOS version works fine on Linux. We don't want to antagonize
NotaBene, so we should make it clear that we're primarily interested in
perpetuating the DOS version (how much of NB's code is actually carried
over from XyW4 for DOS?).
	Another thought: Linux is looking for "the killer app" (see Extreme Tech
discussion). Well, the book publishing industry still does much of its
copy editing on paper, because no method yet devised for electronic
editing meets all its needs. But XyWrite comes closest: as a copy editor,
I always want to run a file through XyW to clean out all the extraneous
and redundant formatting, get commas and periods inside itals and
quotation marks, and search for "Wild number+lowercase ell" and vice
versa, if I see the author was still using the old "lowercase ell for
one" typewriter expedient. (Try doing that in any other word processor!
You can, with much tedious mousing and clicking, do the transposition of
punctuation and end ital codes in WP, but nothing else lets you do wild
card number change and replace.) A native Linux XyWrite with full,
accurate, and complete conversion filters (including options to convert
styles as either just tags, just formats, or tags and formats); a method
of tracking changes that would show when things have been moved as well
as deleted and inserted (I would think comments could do it), and show
changes of formatting when needed (copy editors often end up making
things ital that the author left roman and vice versa, and need to show
that; but not by showing the roman word deleted and an ital word
inserted, which is what the present Redlining feature does); and options
to output to XML, HTML, SGML, and standard DTP apps would surely be a
killer app for the publishing industry. Especially if it were priced
within the reach of freelance copy editors, most of whom operate on a
shoestring.
Patricia M. Godfrey
P and Q Editorial Services