XyWrite

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XyWrite is a word processor for DOS and Windows produced by XyQuest in the mid 1980s and later by The Technology Group. It was the "official word processor" of the New York Times from 1989 to 1993.

Contents 1 Features 2 History and current usage 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] Features

• Its file format consists of plain text (IBM437, or so-called "extended ASCII") with markup (within guillemets « »). This capability is useful for typesetters who need to convert to various formats, e.g., LaTeX.

• Written in assembly allowing it to run faster than similar word processors^{[citation needed]}

• It has a flexible (if somewhat arcane) macro programming language (XPL) that offers many advantages for quick searching, copy-editing and reformatting of raw text. Users including Distefano and Holmgren (cited below) continue to write and share macros extending XyWrite features (printing to USB devices, for example).

• User-editable configuration files allow free remapping of the keyboard for execution of complex commands with individual keystrokes.

• Commands can be typed in directly on a command line, without the use of a mouse.

• Up to 10 files can be opened for editing at one time in separate "windows" that allow quick copy-and-paste among several files. Two files may be opened on the same screen for easy comparison of changes.

• Version 4 had full WYSIWYG graphical editing capabilities including on-screen display of bitmaps.

[edit] History and current usage

After IBM canceled an agreement to create a new GUI version of XyWrite for DOS, XyQuest released the product as Signature. This version was buggy and slow and this eroded the user base^{[citation needed]}. A debugged version was released by the Technology Group (which had bought XyQuest) as XyWrite IV, but this did not increase XyWrite's share of the word processing market^{[citation needed]} despite added versatility and customization potential.

Several versions of XyWrite for DOS and Windows were also localised for use in European countries. For example, the programs were offered in Germany under the name "euroscript" by North American Software GmbH.

A descendant of XyWrite called Nota Bene is still being actively developed. This evolution of the original program is popular among academics, including many biblical scholars who use Greek and Hebrew characters in their work^{[citation needed]}.

Thanks in large part to the work of users of XyWrite, the program is still very usable with Windows (or MS-DOS, and thus Linux^{[citation needed]}). Even on Pentium and similar hardware, it remains noticeably faster than MS Word or OpenOffice. Despite these advantages in speed, XyWrite does not have as many features as Word or Open Office. For example, XyWrite is unaware of Windows ANSI or Unicode character sets and Nota Bene does not support languages (such as Chinese) that require double-byte characters.

[edit] See also

• List of word processors

[edit] External links

• Nota Bene (corporate site)
• xyWrite resources by Diane Fischer (concentrating on XyWrite III)
• XyWrite history within Diane Fischer's site
• XyWWWeb by Carl Distefano and Robert Holmgren (concentrating on XyWrite IV)
• XyWrite.com A General XyWrite Resource by Brian Henderson
• The Xy Files Feature article on Salon.com about people who continue using XyWrite.