RE: Xy3 vs Xy4 (was: Luddite defined [etc])

["Tom Robertson" t1r@xxxxxxxx]

Russ W. Urquhart says: What do you tell them about XyWrite 4.0+
that the modern
stuff can't do? (I have my own preferences, but it's good to know
what others
like about XY!)

Here is part of my contribution to this list. I will be happy to
collate other's contributions into a master post if anyone would
care for same.

First and foremost for all XyWrite versions, is an ability to
open and manage multiple documents. Specifically this means
calling up documents in specific windows on startup of XyWrite,
(Like I put my running notes in window "8" and my xx.SPL list for
auto-replace in window "9")

XyWrite operates almost invisibly within Windows 98, and after
learning how to set up the PIF files, never crashes (and I do not
know how big a file, in megabytes, the program can open.)

I am constantly adding to a personal reference base that is
searchable in XyWrite. Using the clipboard to pull data from
Windows programs still involves extra key actions, but storing
downloads from magazines, newspapers, e:Mail and the internet in
XyWrite's more or less straight ASCII both saves a large amount
of disk space and speeds up searches.

All writing and editing is done by keystroke, mainly without even
using the "Fn" keys.

My particular XyWrite keyboard takes something like 40 percent
less keystrokes for editing than even the XyWrite setup that came
with the program. Last time I checked, which was several years
ago, XyWrite operated with some 60 percent less keystrokes than
Word Perfect and about the same for Word.

I still do all my telephone management in XyWrite using an old
DOS program called Hotline. Some 15,000 more or less current
numbers are instantly accessible, with another 40,000 numbers
dating from the early 1990s that are very often still useful.

As picked up by Lisa Kleinholz. While my XyWrite 4.017 program
will run on one 1.4 Mb disk, I can keep the whole XyWrite 4.017
program with all dict etc files; MS Bookshelf 91 and its quotes,
thesaurus, dictionary, and other data; and a bunch of other stuff
on one 250 MB, USB compatible Zip disk.