From: s127@ii.uib.no (Torgeir Veimo) Subject: Re: A Better WordProcessor Idea Date: Mon, 24 May 1993 14:54:54 GMT
In article <1993May22.202315.21618@klaava.Helsinki.FI>, wirzeniu@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lars Wirzenius) writes:
|> About the file format: Using LaTeX has definite advantages, but is not
|> essential. What is essential, is two things: the `native' file format
|> must not be binary, because it must be easy to generate with standard
|> tools (so that tools can be used to generate parts of the text, e.g. a
|> fancy file listing or screen dump). A mere import function is not
|> nearly good enough, it's way too clumsy to use.
Probably a latex-like hierarchial file format would be suitable. The 'Doc'
wysiwyc document editor in the interviews distribution apparently uses this, but
since our university don't carry interviews, i've never had the chance to
compile and try it? Probably there are some binary distributions floating
around.
|> Also, the formatting algorithms from TeX probably are usable in a
|> WYSIWYG word processor as well, even if they might be less easy to do
|> than the kind of quick-and-dirty algorithms most DOS wps seem to use
|> (at least the output from those is usually horrible). Use them if you
|> can, because if the quality of output is close to TeX, you can get
|> much more people to use the program. Even if you ignore math: not
|> everyone uses TeX for math.
If you want to do this in X, you could write an Textsink widget that formats
output to the screen using tex like sematics. (The Textwidget uses one
TextSource t ohold the text and one textsink to display it. It takes care of
input itself.) The main problem lies in using intelligent reformatting when
inserting text or when some part of the window needs to be repainted. I dunno
much about tex formatting algorithms. Does anyone know of a internet site
carrying descriptions of the formating algorithms using in tex?
-- Torgeir Veimo (s127@ii.uib.no)Studying at the University of Bergen
"...I'm gona wave my freak flag high!" (Jimi Hendrix) "...and it would be okay on any other day!" (The Police)
-> Manage the Earth - Allow Whale Hunting