Reply to note from em36 <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Fri, 27 Feb 2026 12:43:38 -0500 > Whenever someone spends dozens or hundreds of hours working on > something that will benefit many other people, a significant > number of people will complain that there is something dishonest > or disgraceful about it. > > I've seen many instances of this, and that is perhaps the case > here. Edward, you make a fair point. I think xyghost's reception here might have been more welcoming had he not chosen to post anonymously, but that, of course, is his prerogative. In any case, I've been corresponding with him privately, and he is indeed a live human and in earnest about his project. He reports -- credibly, as far as I can tell -- that he has succeeded in producing assembly code that compiles flawlessly to EDITOR executables for XyWrite 2 and XyWrite 3.58B, respectively, and today tells me that he has reached a significant milestone towards doing the same with XyWrite 4.018. If he makes it all the way -- and I tend to think he will -- the result would, at a minimum, document the internal workings of a family of historically significant DOS word processors, and might, in theory at least, lead to further development of the programs. I see no reason to discourage these efforts. I know that xyghost is still interested in collecting all available versions of XyWrite DOS (and Windows) executables as well as those for Signature and NB-DOS. I have sent him what I have, and would encourage others on this mailing list to follow suit if they are comfortable doing so. And I hope that xyghost will continue to post to the list on his progress and feel free to come forward with any further requests that he may have for information or assistance -- and that list members will entertain any communications from him with an open mind. In short, let's give him some breathing space and see what develops. -- Carl Distefano cld@xxxxxxxxxx