Reply to note from harrybinswanger <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:14:22
-0400
Harry,
> I love the idea of Man/Ref/Help ...
In addition to targeted searches, it's good for discovering things about the program. Just command
`REF this` or `MAN that` serendipitously and see what it turns up.
> ... and RE with it.
So you've warmed to regular expressions? That's good. Even simple ones, like "this|that",
can add significant power to a search.
> Is the XyWrite/XyScript comparison going to be in a future version?
> I'm particularly interested in the comparison of the two XPL
> syntaxes.
The difference between new XPL vs. old XPL boils down to three salient points. (1) Plain-text syntax
vs. guillemets and other arcane control characters. (2) Ease of use: good-bye 64KB memory
limitation, lots of new keywords and special variables to work with. (3) Integration with the
operating system.
I'll give you some examples. Want to read a file (of virtually any size) into a variable?
```
SET text = READFILE("d:\path\myfile.txt")
```
Or read the document in the current tab into a variable?
```
SET text = $DOC
```
Grab Linux directory output for the current file?
```
XV out ls -lA $fp
MSG $out
# then parse it as needed...
```
See your IP address?
```
XV ip = curl -s https://api.ipify.org
MSG $ip
```
As you know, in old XPL you had to jump through a succession of hoops to do these sorts of things,
if you could do them at all. Now you've got the power in your hands.
--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxxxx