From: nick@symphony.mp.ucc.ie (Nick Hilliard) Subject: Re: Let's write a wordprocessor. Date: Sat, 22 May 1993 19:18:08 GMT
Jeff Kopmanis (jeffk@cyberspace.org) wrote:
: 3) Before all you EMACS users go hog-wild at #2, let me just say that to a
: Unix newbie, emacs is a very hostile environment. It may be a rich
: environment, but far from being easy to use.
:-)
: 4) Could we try to get WordStar 3.31 or (ugh!) WordPerfect 5.1 style
: editors first? If they were designed properly, adding WYSIWYG would be
: reasonably easy. And, sticking to standard formats would ensure that files
: would interchange with the rest of the world.
Well, you're speaking from the point of view of a WP user. Remember, there
are a lot of people out there who, for one reason or another, don't use WP.
Either they don't like it (personally, I don't), or they use something else
like Word. I guess no matter what gets done, someone is going to complain.
As for using 'standard formats' - I wasn't aware that there were any :-)
Even different versions of word-processors use different formats. A much
better idea would be to write some form of converter program (or suite of
programs).
: 5) I would STRONGLY recommend being interchangeable with the DOS world in
: some way. Linux people are for the most part former DOS users, so their
: expectations are DOS-like, although relatively mild.
Agreed. Despicable and all as it is, DOS is a fact of life. If Linux is
going to be successful outside the hacker/home user/academic user
environment, then some attempt is going to have to be made to make it into
at least a more friendly environment to use. Having some form of
word-processor which is a) easy to use, b) powerful enough to be able to
cope with most needs, and c) versatile enough for the sort of people who
would want to use Unix in the first place, would be of great use in this
regard.
best,
Nick