Be not the last to set the old aside

[Leslie Bialler lb136@xxxxxxxx]

A poster to the list confesses:

> Me, I perversely persist in using GOfer.

Which makes me wonder why some of you people use XyWrite at all. I
continue to use it because it continues to do what I need it to
do--on-screen editing, fast text processing, and SGML
conversions--quickly and efficiently. I do not "perversely persist" with
it out of sense of nostalgia nor do I take stubborn pride in clinging to
an ancient system. I do not cling to anything. When something works, I
keep using it. When it no longer does, I abandon it.

In recent months we list members have been treated to an array of posts,
most of which I confess are gruesomely interesting to read (and so I
do), in praise of keyboards that have F keys on the left (with a side
excursion into the tricky world of stickiness), mono monitors, ancient
DOS utilities (my fave's still Gordon Haff's wonderful old Directory
Freedom, BTW), and now behold: GOfer nostalgia.

Scattered among such remembrances of things past are digs at Tech
Group's uncertainty about whether or not to fix a minor year 2000
problem in the DIR command, and various other snippy comments about Tech
Group management (geez: would _you_ upgrade a product for people who
prefer GOfer to Netscape?).

All of this, quite frankly, frightens me. So here is today's Big
Question: do people hereabouts use XyWrite because of all the good
things it does, or do they use it out of some cranky pride in not
upgrading, or (worse) because they fear the new?

End of rant. Flame away.

--
Leslie Bialler
Columbia University Press
lb136@xxxxxxxx

"Here drink this down
"We've been here way too long
"Acting this way is a craft.
"I'll shut up soon.
"Then we'll go home.
"Covered in Band Aids and casts."

--Kristin Hersh, "Cartoons," from her new CD, _Strange Angels_