Phil,
For nostalgia, the best remedy is using one of the virtualized solutions
to run old programs. In many cases, old programs run better and faster
and more reliably now than ever before. And, best of all, they can be
used in novel ways in workflows that keep basic editing very simple (as
in Xy3) and converted (either using XY print files or external
conversion programs) to produce for instance Unicode XML. For this kind
of use, I think the Xy3 file format is far better than newer more
complicated variants. Therefore, a modified Xy3 engine is what I would
like to see. Xy4 has many amenities that serve their users well, but it
is much more complicated to use as a rough and ready formatting platform
for custom purposes.
P.S. I have used NB3 to convert from Xy to Ventura and ultimately to
PDF. And nowadays, I use it to convert from Xy via external conversion
programs to Unicode XML-type format for publishing online databases. For
this work, native Unicode support and an augmented formatting code
vocabulary (custom 'print modes' in Xy parlance) would be beneficial.
Best regards,
Kari Eveli
LEXITEC Book Publishing (Finland)
lexitec@xxxxxxxxxx
*** Lexitec Online ***
Lexitec in English: http://www.lexitec.fi/english.html
Home page in Finnish: http://www.lexitec.fi/
I got into this discussion to see if there is a modern need that would make it worthwhile to pull XyWrite into 2018. So far, there’s been a big mix of opinions.
Personally, I’m nostalgic about XyWrite. I used to support if for my publishing clients. I’m also nostalgic about my job as a programmer at Atex where the editor was born.
