Msg: RE: A radical idea: a new XyWrite

Thank you for the update on Nota Bene functionality.

Being that I’ve never used that product, I have no idea of what comparisons that can be made between the ‘old’ XyWrite and the latest NB, so I don’t know what I’m missing.

What I am trying to ascertain is whether there is any value or need to take an old XyWrite and bring it up to modern standards.

So far, we have not determined if source code would be available for any version, including Signature. A lot of older software does has been ‘donated’ to public domain. Some one should actually ask the owners, but so far, no one (to my knowledge) has investigated that.

However, if anyone were to attempt resurrecting XyWrite or Signature, it would be the primary concern.

So: The big questions are:

Who knows anyone that may have the rights to the code of some version?
Can someone who knows the rights-holder ask them about obtaining the code and/or rights to it.
If the answer to #2 is ‘yes,’ will this be available as a donation, or how much would the purchase price be.

If anyone has some suggestions as to how this can be done, please reply…

Until we have an answer to these questions, everything else is just wishful thinking.

Phil

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

As of Notabene v10, virtually nothing of xy3 (all I can speak to) remained in NB. It's unlikely that customers who have stuck with the product to date (v12?) would have a strong interest in restoring continuity with a 30 year old product they've either forgotten or never knew.

As for the (rumored?) unreleased 10 variant, the relationship between v9 and xy3 was already pretty thin, in my few months' experience with it. XPL disruptions aside (of which there were many), command support was already waning and a number of commands and formatting protocols were incompatible. It's hard to believe that this v10 interim version restored compatibility already lost in v9.

From: Philip White
To: "xywrite@xxxxxxxx"
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2018 1:39 PM
Subject: RE: A radical idea: a new XyWrite

What’s wrong? Are they simply unresponsive to the needs of their customers, or is they consider this to be just a request from an esoteric few?

If the latter is the case, perhaps you (ALL) should just extoll the virtues of XPL in the NB on-line forums. Perhaps creating an audience might cause them to consider it more seriously…

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: xywrite-bounce@xxxxxxxx on behalf of Paul Breeze
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2018 12:31:54 PM
To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: A radical idea: a new XyWrite

Philip

The problem with 32 bit Nota Bene is that is does not support XPL
routines. The last 16 bit version, NB9, is the best for that, though
not perfect. Use of the command line is a bit dodgy too, in my
experience. However from what I understand, 32 bit NB would be capable
of backwards compatibility, with some modification. As I noted in my
post for Harry, I believe such a stripped back version exists already
within NB.

I have in the past tried to persuade NB to release this, or something
similar to us but time (at NB to devote to the project) has always
seemed the stumbling block. Personally I would be happy with a stripped
down version of NB that is capable of running all the XPL routines we
like. However that would require the acquiescence of NB and I am not
sure if the company would be cooperative. If it does not have
resources, would it be interested in letting us create a working version
to our liking? We can only ask.

Best wishes

Paul

On 19/04/2018 17:11, Philip White wrote:
If Nota Bene does everything you need on a modern OS platform and has
all the editing capabilities that XyWrite did/does, why do we need to
reinvent the wheel?

If there is some issue that Nota Bene has missed the boat on, let’s
remedy that or port XyWrite out of the past into the present. What does
EVERYONE think?

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* xywrite-bounce@xxxxxxxx on
behalf of Harry Binswanger
*Sent:* Thursday, April 19, 2018 9:50:28 AM
*To:* xywrite@xxxxxxxx
*Subject:* Re: A radical idea: a new XyWrite

Harry, I don't know if you have forgotten or are just choosing to ignore
the discussions you and I had with Steve at NB a couple of years ago on
just this subject.

Paul,

That was on my mind, but I didn't refer to it directly. And I didn't
recall that Steve said that they had a version of NB 10 that was what we
wanted. I'm going back to re-read that exchange now.

Regards,
Harry