From: rpj@fir.canberra.edu.au (Ross Johnson) Subject: Re: A Word Processor for Linux Date: 7 Aug 1993 10:22:34 GMT
In <23pi25INNt1f@matt.ksu.ksu.edu> danodom@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Dan Odom) writes:
>andreas@fly.mgen.uni-heidelberg.de (Andreas Helke) writes:
>[Previous crap deleted]
>>I Wrote:
>>>
>>>What's wrong with TeX?
>>It is unfortunately not as intuitive as Winword 2. I can not mark a entry in
>>a table and drag it with the mouse to another place in this table. And I am
>>shure that I can not convince any one in our institute to switch from
>>Winword to TeX. The better application programs for MS Windows still keep us
>>on an inferior OS for our dayly work.
>As for intuitive, well, 'Intuitive' is a myth
>perpetuated by Apple and recently picked up by Microsoft - nothing
>having to do with computers is 'intuitive'. My favorite example is
These systems aren't what I'd call intuitive to a complete newcomer
either, and personally, I like the idea of a universal GUI about as much
as I like the idea of a universal hamburger, but there's no denying that
familiar metaphors (desktop etc), logical functionality (CUA etc) and
consistency (look and feel, cut and paste etc) across all applications
accelerates learning new ones.
When you refer to people who like "pretty pictures", stimulation is a
big factor in a learning and productive environment, and to most people,
a word processor with lot's of cute little buttons and instant
aesthetically pleasing visual confirmation is far more interesting and
stimulating than, say, editing a TeX source file in vi, even if the end
product isn't quite as good. The negative for a few is that, to do
everything they want to do, they may still need to learn TeX as well,
and in that case, they'd probably decide to use TeX for everything.
We have TeX, we also need an equally good (free) WYSIWYG word processor,
supported (or supportable) by the usual array of integrated
applications.
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