Subject: Re: A Better WordProcessor Idea From: physadm@phys.canterbury.ac.nz (Andrew McGregor, rm ,ext ) Date: Mon, 24 May 1993 02:39:12 GMT
In article 24381@spang.Camosun.BC.CA, dbarker@spang.Camosun.BC.CA (Deryk Barker) writes:
>As for the claim by AT&T that WYSIWIG Wp didn't reduce the development
>time compared to LaTex (quoted by somebody earlier): did they factor
>in the learning curve at all? I started using Ami Pro productively (as
>did my wife) in a few minutes; I don't have the *time* to learn LaTex,
>wonderful though it might be.
>
>--
>Real: Deryk Barker, Computer Science Dept., Camosun College, Victoria B.C.
>Email: (dbarker@camosun.bc.ca)
>Phone: +1 604 370 4452
What about this: we set a whole class of physics students on our (Sun
based) system in March. They had two hours of instruction in emacs
(Lucid, locally added LaTeX production menus and many keboard and
mouse enhancements) and LaTeX, and were pointed at the right manuals
for further info. All that class have done an assignment in LaTeX AND
most are doing other things with it further. Virtually none would use
anything else in preference, unless they had to. None of them had any
previous experience with LaTeX, many had little experience with
computers at all. They also use email, news and other unix software
quite a lot.
Moral: the learning curve for LaTeX, emacs and unix in general can be
drastically shortened. But, you HAVE to have X to do this.