I resist the temptation to send all that verbosity back at you, but I
didn't get past the fourth paragraph...
That said, I am a freelance/contract writer since 1985 and _I_ selected
XyW (probably 3.56) as my word processor. If a client/editor had had any
say, it would have been WordImperfect instead.
I "migrated" to XyWrite from Leading Edge Word Processing, which came
with my very first computer. And I picked that computer in part because
LEWP functioned much like the dedicated word processing system (whose
name escapes me) at my last salaried place of employment.
I tried WordImperfect along the way, thought it was a piece of crap but
learned it anyhow because I had to use it for a while, while working
on-site for a client.
Most writers, who are an independent breed anyhow, know about XyWrite and
will choose it over most others if given the chance.
I don't know an XPL or a REXX from a donut (and, yes, I run happily under
OS/2 Warp), and most of the recent discussion here strikes me as akin to
the efforts of the militant militia efforts to turn around the nation to
satisfy themselves and their own concepts of what the Constitution
_ought_ to say.
--Marv Katz