Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!chinet!les
From: les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Is there any wordprocessor in unix
Message-ID: <8942@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 13 Jul 89 14:31:59 GMT
References: <4856@macom1.UUCP> <248@arnor.UUCP> <1989Jul11.192542.13711@eci386.uucp>
Reply-To: les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell)
Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix
Lines: 36

In article <1989Jul11.192542.13711@eci386.uucp> clewis@eci386.UUCP (Chris Lewis) writes:

>a) depends on what you mean by "usual WP's".  The most popular so-called 
>   WP's (eg: wordstar, msword, wordperfect, etc.) don't have "fancy
>   fonts".  They can lay out Courier fonts okay, but have very
>   limited capabilities with proportional - especially with multiple
>   point sizes.

Perhaps you haven't looked at these programs for a year or two.  The current
PC and Mac (word & wp) versions do indeed handle proportional fonts, multiple
sizes and imbedded graphics. They have a semi-wysiwyg mode for reasonable
speed while typing plus a graphic page preview, and drivers for hundreds of
printers. 

>b) BSD is bundled with nroff, troff, tbl, eqn, and various printer
>   support depending on the version of BSD (versatec fonts,ditroff etc. etc.)
>   And is either available or already bundled in almost every other version 
>   of *nix.  What's the problem?

It's easy to hire a temp who knows Wordperfect. Can you say the same
about the unix tools?

>c) Documents are portable across many machines (try printing
>   a wordperfect document on an IBM mainframe!).  And there are several
>   companies with extensions.

Wordperfect is available for IBM mainframes (I think it is currently
only version 4.2 though).
   
>Bundled with DOS you only get EDLIN. 

And the $50 or so you pay for DOS leaves a bit left over to buy the
word processor of your choice compared to the price of unix.  Unfortunately
you also have to buy a network to approach the functionality in other areas.

Les Mikesell