From: wcn@cs.brown.edu (Wen-Chun Ni) Subject: Re: (was: Re: A Word Processor for Linux) Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1993 04:42:56 GMT
Just to point out why a WYSIWYG word processor justifies its purposes.
I think the biggest problem with TeX is the way it handles errors;
In terms of compiler methodology, TeX has a very bad error recovery
mechanism. Even though I academically am a disciple of Knuth, I
can't quite agree with the school of thought that power is more
important than user interface. There seems to be a big obstacle
in dealing with a more structured model of macro expansion in TeX,
if we don't abandon the original design. Even for a moderately
experienced TeX user, debugging some macros can be very painful,
especially when you are writing something very time-urgent.
On the other hand, from my past experiences in typing tech reports
and research papers, I found that producing a TeX document,
if done correctly, is much more exciting (vague?) and much more
efficient that doing the same job using WYSIWYG programs like
FrameMaker. The experience is basically biased because I do
math typing a lot.
In my humble opinions, it's a matter of time that the two branches
will merge into one flexible system. The CPU speed and the
price of RAM are two of the major factors. From the viewpoint,
I am very optimistic about a final all-you-will-be-happy solution.
--
Wen-Chun Ni, wcn@cs.brown.edu
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"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition
from mediocre minds..." -- Albert Einstein