Exact History of Xara, CorelXara and Xara X. Anyone know?

[b_Belle]

Anyone know the exact history of Xara? I first got a copy of Xara V1.0 years ago, which I bought from a company called just "Xara Ltd". A few months later I received the V1.5 upgrade from Corel, who had, apparently, bought out Xara. Now, several years on, it seems (I'm not sure) that the program, or, rather, the new version of the prog' - Xara X - is an independent company again. Is this right? Also is it right that the program was originally written for the BBC Micro? It's a bit hard to believe... Just curious.

Barry.

Last word: Gary Priester is GOD! I hooked up with Xara X beta 2 months ago, and working through Gary's tutorial's has transformed my ability with the program. Gary, you really should do one tutorial a WEEK. A month is too long to wait.null

[This message was edited by barry bell on November 09, 2000 at 02:15 PM.]

[This message was edited by barry bell on November 09, 2000 at 02:20 PM.]

[b_Belle]

Anyone know the exact history of Xara? I first got a copy of Xara V1.0 years ago, which I bought from a company called just "Xara Ltd". A few months later I received the V1.5 upgrade from Corel, who had, apparently, bought out Xara. Now, several years on, it seems (I'm not sure) that the program, or, rather, the new version of the prog' - Xara X - is an independent company again. Is this right? Also is it right that the program was originally written for the BBC Micro? It's a bit hard to believe... Just curious.

Barry.

Last word: Gary Priester is GOD! I hooked up with Xara X beta 2 months ago, and working through Gary's tutorial's has transformed my ability with the program. Gary, you really should do one tutorial a WEEK. A month is too long to wait.null

[This message was edited by barry bell on November 09, 2000 at 02:15 PM.]

[This message was edited by barry bell on November 09, 2000 at 02:20 PM.]

[Peter Clifton]

Hi Barry

Xara does indeed have a long history. The Corel connection comes from a then understandable reaction to impressive speed and usability and features of Xara (Excalibur or Camelot was it's dvelopment name, I can't remember which) compared to Draw or any other vector illustration product of that era. Corel purchased the distribution / marketing rights to the program and as I'm sure the Xara regulars will tell you didn't do an awful lot as regards marketing it. Xara was effectively stifled, I am however greatful Corel used some of Xara's technology in Draw V7. The distribution / marketing agreement was terminated earlier this year allowing Xara to freely market the new Xara X.

I'm pretty sure that if Xara does have any direct connections to Acorn computers then it will be from the Archimedes (Acorn RISC Machine ARM processor based )range of computers.

That said Xara has direct lineage with a company called Computer Concepts who did indeed start out marketing programs for the BBC Micro. With such excellent BBC Micro EPROM software such as WordWise, Interword and InterSpell.

I even had a copy of The Hitch Hikers Guide To the Galaxy text adventure they marketed once.

Did you know back in 1986 they had a spell checker 'Interspell' that checked text as you typed and prompted you with nearest match, because the product was EPROM based thanks to a clever use of Large EPROMS and a PAL chip to handle banked switching, the program was very fast and allowed you to save a custom dictionary into sideways RAM. It was 10 years before Microsoft added check as you type to Word.

They also released another great the STBasic ROM for the Atari 520ST, this allowed people like me who cut their teeth on BBC Micros to happily start prgramming using a procedural BASIC language very similar to BBC Basic which I'm sure was their intention.

All this low level machine code prowess is I believe what makes Xara such a speedy compact program.

Even IF I still don't possess the artistic skill to use it <G>

Peter

[b_Belle]

Thanks for all the info, Peter. Actually, I think I got it wrong about Xara originating on the Beeb Micro. I now think it was the Amiga. But that really dates it (and me), doesn' t it?

I got my first copy Xara after walking into a Demo of the program at an Earls Court computer show. I knew absolutely nothing about graphics stuff at the time and the demo just rooted me to my seat. It was, for the time, absolutely stunning. I'd grappled, just a bit, with some CAD and drawing progs previously, and had been struck the god-awful SLOWNESS of everything. (A 12Mhz IBM AT was the fastest machine I'd used at the time.)

The incredible speed of the Xara demo was just awesome. So, anyway, I got a copy of the program and tried it all out etc, etc. But the original came with just one manual, which was nothing more than an alphabetical list of the various menu options and functions. There were no tutorials or anything. I didn't really get very far at all and my interest faded..

The next year I happened across a wonderful 2D prog "Aldus Intellidraw" which really got me sucked into the drawing side of my job (I'm an Engineer). It was a hell of a neat little prog' that originated on the Mac and, old as it is, I still use it on a daily basis for making flowcharts etc. Adobe bought out Aldus some time ago and immediately abandoned Intellidraw. So it goes....

My renewed interest in Xara X came about because it can now import all my old Intellidraw stuff (in Windows Metafile format, with a bit of tweaking) into the program, and the Xara is so, so bloody fast! Also, Mr Priester's tutorial's have really straightened me out on the use of bitmaps.

Most of my spare time now is taken up with learning several different 3D packages. But 3D is different. The learning curve is very, VERY steep and progress has been pretty slow. I've got some way to go yet with 3D...

Whatever, I'm looking forward to the first non-beta release of Xara X and I'll be one of its first customers.

Barry

[This message was edited by barry bell on November 10, 2000 at 03:29 PM.]

[Peter Clifton]

Hi Barry

I work for a medium sized manufacturing company, who are just starting to dip their toes into 3D, I'm expecting the mechanical department to have an extremely steep learning curve. They are almost exclusively 2d AutoCAD at the moment.

I have experimented with 3D at home but I still have a liking for isometric illustration, even though in most respects the art will probably die out. I'm not a classicly trained draughtsman, but did spend five years working on the isometric problem on and off (in respect to CorelDRAW), solving bits of the problem as I went along. I am a technical author by trade.

I'll probably get lynched for this, but in the case of enhancing engineering drawings there ARE alternatives to XARA, if you have a reasonably quick (300mhz+) modern PC then CorelDRAW 7 or greater is worth considering.

In the same way that CorelDRAW users are limited in their creations by the inability to apply more than one vector effect to a single or more specifically a group of objects, Xara users can be limited by being unable to look outside their program for other methods of creating different drawing styles, then again for the type of work Xara users produce they really don't have to, it does so much.

The attached image was created by importing 2D AutoCAD files, scaling 1:1, tidying up, and applying 1 of 3 Draw scripts I worked out. The original Draw file is geometrically and isometrically correct (to .01%). It took about 50 hours over 10 working days. Each object in the drawing is fully drawn in one perspective allowing for compositional changes prior to printing.

Even with Xara's isometric grid, I don't believe such a drawing would be economically feasible or much fun if it was created in it.

Because of CorelDRAW's flexibility in allowing other users to enhance the core program, soon after I solved my problem a user called Nick Wilkinson at www.isocalc.com produced a plugin for Draw 7, 8, 9 and now 10 that is simply brilliant, it does everything my humble scripts did and so much more, it can draw isometrically correct illustrations at ANY angle / rotation, and being mathematically based (my scripts were empirical) is even more accurate. There are other people who have worked on the problem and produced plug-ins enhancments to draw but none IMHO is quite so elegant.

Anyway enough of my ramblings. If Xara does everything you want then there is no need to change

I just wanted an excuse to show off a piece of work I published in the old I/US Draw forum last year.

And hopefully show the Xara users something that maybe Draw does just that bit quicker and better [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Peter

[b_Belle]

Wow, that isometric is something. It really shows what can be done.

I've been using Intellidraw for a long time now, but really only for basic 2D stuff. But, as an engineer, the software I use most of all is a Word-Processor! Writing out long (and dull) reports and procedures etc. My interest in 3D is, at the moment, just a hobby.

Over the last year I've tried out many mag-cover 3D demos I've finally decided on just 2 different programs: Bryce for landscapes and Rhino3D for modelling.

Its still early days yet, as I don't have that much spare time, but I'm very pleased with Rhino. I've only just finished working my way through the first tutorial, and I think this 3D stuff ain't gonna be as tough as I thought. Using Bryce is completely wonderful and hypnotic, but I do need a much faster machine to get the best out of that program. Rendering times on my present machine are just hopeless. That will get sorted out at Xmas.

Barry