XyWrite is a word processor for MS-DOS and Windows modeled on the mainframe-based ATEX typesetting system. Popular with writers and editors for its speed and degree of customization, XyWrite was in its heyday the house word processor in many editorial offices, including the New York Times from 1989 to 1993. XyWrite was developed by David Erickson and marketed by XyQuest from 1982 through 1992, after which it was acquired by The Technology Group. The final version for MS-DOS was 4.18 (1993); for Windows, 4.13.

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. A plug-in for ANSI characters is available.
  • XyWrite is written in assembly language,

History and current usage

XyQuest was founded in June 1982 by former ATEX employees Dave Erickson and John Hild. Its most successful product was XyWrite III Plus, which attracted a devoted following among professional writers.

Announced in September 1989, XyWrite IV promised a lot to users, it entered beta-test after a year in November 1990 hoping to release by year end. The turning point for XyWrite came in the form of a disastrous near-partnership with IBM, which was seeking a modern replacement for its venerable DisplayWrite word processor.

But on the eve of Signature's release, IBM announced a strategic decision to withdraw completely from the desktop software market, shocking XyQuest and leaving Signature in limbo. Following mixed reviews and poor performance, it was later improved and renamed as XyWrite 4.0.

Nota Bene

A descendant of XyWrite called Nota Bene is still being actively developed. Nota Bene, which runs on the XyWrite engine, is popular among academics. As of January 2020, Nota Bene for Windows is at version 12. NotaBene is supported on native Windows, Mac and on Linux running WINE.

Current usage

In 2015, work started on using XyWrite within the vDos program shell in 32 and 64 bit windows. This was successful in October 2016, resulting in an x86 PC and DOS emulator for Windows based on Jos Schaars's vDos. Formerly known as vDos-lfn, vDosPlus allows XyWrite 4, XyWrite III+, and Nota Bene for DOS to run under the latest versions of Microsoft Windows (including 64-bit Windows). VdosPlus.org shows the various functions, and XyWWWeb shows usage.

XyWrite does not have as many features as Word or OpenOffice.org. 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.

Reception

Byte in 1984 stated "the XyQuest people have done an admirable job porting the editing part of the Atex system" to the IBM PC. While criticizing the documentation, it called XyWrite "extremely fast, powerful, compact, and flexible".

Stating in The Yale Review that they were "not at all the best known", Edward Mendelson in 1985 recommended XyWrite II+ 1.5 and Nota Bene 1.0 as among the three best word processors for "journalists, essayists, and scholars, novelists, dramatists, and poets". Despite "serious flaws [and] special varieties of annoyance and illogic", he said that they "are each far superior to anything else available". Mendelson also praised XyWrite III 3.04 and Nota Bene 2.0 in 1986, describing the former as "the only word-processing program that lets you work as quickly as you think", and the latter "as a tool for scholarly writing and editing [it] has no competition".

Version history

MS-DOS

  • XyWrite I
  • XyWrite II
  • XyWrite II Plus
  • Signature 1.0 - initially announced September 1989 as XyWrite 4.0. - Aug 1993

See also

  • Bitstream Speedo Fonts
  • List of word processors

References

  • Nota Bene (corporate site)