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- Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
- Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!auvm!TAUNIVM!B10
- Message-ID: <NOTABENE%92090310023432@TAUNIVM>
- Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 09:49:35 IST
- Sender: Nota Bene List <NOTABENE@TAUNIVM>
- From: "Itamar Even-Zohar, Porter Chair of Semiotics" <B10@TAUNIVM>
- Subject: Re: Library Master (was Re: Life after NotaBene)
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene
- In-Reply-To: Message of Wed, 2 Sep 92 11:50:00 EST from <STRAUSS@UNCA>
- Lines: 48
-
- On Wed, 2 Sep 92 11:50:00 EST <STRAUSS@UNCA> said:
- >
- >A brief question: NB 3.x was written, basically, by XYQuest. Nicht wahr?
- >So that NB 4.0 is the first time NB has tackled a word processor on their
- >own. Can this be part of the problem?
- >
- >Bob Strauss
- >UNC-Asheville
-
- The trouble with NBI seems to be that they have NOT yet received
- access to XyQuest's editor. They must then go by adds-on rather than
- by modifiying the editor (nb.exe). In previous versions, this was
- done through a set of OVL files, all of which were written in
- XPL (XyQuest's Programming Language), then _encrypted_ (the command
- for encryption is STENC, with file on screen; but if you do that,
- you will not be able to decrypt the text, so if you wish to play
- with this feature, have an extra copy of your file!). In 3.1,
- different adds-on were introduced, written in aseembler, and
- compiled to create the NBBIB.COM and NBBIB.OVR file. In your
- keyboard, you may have seen manu keys defined with the OV code;
- this is simply an instruction to go to the above mentioned files
- rather than to the EXE editor.
-
- The little I have seen of NB4 seem to point at the same direction:
- NB has been augmented with a number of OVR files, all of which
- work as patches to the editor. Here is where NBI depart from
- XyWrite, but the editor itself, NB.EXE, stays the same; and so
- do the commands, etc. The only difference is that the section
- with the error messages is replaced for NBI, so you will get
- 'phrase not found' or 'no phrase' rather than 'no saveget'
- (saveget / save+get) is the XyW term for 'phrase'), etc. But
- you will find all of XyWrite commands embedded in the section
- of commands (which you can see and cut out with Buerg's LIST):
- typ anf fo for 'print' and 'printd', and a lot of other
- different commands ('ed' for 'new', etc.). By the way, all
- these commands would work on the command line.
-
- I am afraid that the structure of NB will remain quite
- awkward precisely because of the lack of independence from XyQuest.
- I guess that this is also part of the reason why the price
- is still high: NBI must pay to XyQuest for each single copy
- they sell, if I am not mistaken.
-
- All of the above is not based on any inside information,
- but on plain observation, which, naturally, may have generated
- some wrong conclusions.
-
- Itamar Even-Zohar
-