XyWrite

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XyWrite is a word processor for DOS and Windows that has enjoyed a certain level of popularity since the late 1980s. It has several great virtues:

• Its file format consists of plain text (IBM437, or so-called "extended ASCII") with markup (within guillemets « »), making it a favourite among typesetters who need to convert various formats to LaTeX.

• Written in assembler, it runs extremely fast.

• It has a flexible (if somewhat rebarbative) macro programming language (XPL)

• It allows free remapping of the keyboard. Thanks to this, the user can define dozens of combinations with Ctrl-Shift, Ctrl-Alt, or Alt-Shift, and do much more.

• Even newer versions do not require use of a mouse; instead, commands can be typed in directly and the hands may remain on the keyboard at all times.

Up to and including version 3.5, what you saw on screen did not look at all like what you got on paper, which was no impediment for the writer (especially in the days of mediocre or slow display of graphics) but may have deterred potential corporate buyers.

Version 3.5 of XyWrite was compact, fast, and polished to near-perfection -- but as a word processor, and with no pretensions of letting the user previsualize elegant design. However, the appeal of such spartan software was clearly waning. After an agreement with IBM to create a new, GUI version for DOS ran into difficulties, the product was finally released as Signature. Buggy and slow, it repelled most existing users of XyWrite and won no converts. A substantively debugged version came out as XyWrite IV, but this was probably too late. XyWrite for Windows (often termed "XyWin") was eventually produced, but failed to capture significant market share. A descendant of XyWrite called Nota Bene is still available, however, and enjoys some popularity especially among theologians who use Greek and Hebrew characters in their work.

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). Even on Pentium and similar hardware, it remains noticeably faster than MS Word or OpenOffice. However, its applicability is limited by the way it is based on a limited character set. Even Nota Bene does not support languages (such as Chinese) that require double-byte characters.

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)