Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:15208 comp.text:4478
Path: utzoo!attcan!lsuc!eci386!woods
From: woods@eci386.uucp (Greg A. Woods)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.text
Subject: Re: a word-processor for UNIX
Summary: programming languages like troff!?!?  :-)
Message-ID: <1989Jul26.184244.22434@eci386.uucp>
Date: 26 Jul 89 18:42:44 GMT
References: <20306@adm.BRL.MIL> <26558@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <8467@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> <1989Jul21.203719.3716@eci386.uucp> <233@psgdc>
Reply-To: woods@eci386.UUCP (Greg A. Woods)
Organization: R. H. Lathwell Associates: Elegant Communications, Inc.
Lines: 41

In article <233@psgdc> rg@psgdc.UUCP (Dick Gill) writes:
> In article <1989Jul21.203719.3716@eci386.uucp> I write:
> >> [ from yet another article in the chain! ]
> >> Concerning the use of formatting languages vs. publishing systems:
> >
> >Hold on a moment.  Are you a programmer?  I am.  I find little
>
> Maybe this is the crux of the matter.  Programmers approach
> problems in a particular way, and  the production of finished
> text is simply another problem to be solved using familiar
> tools.  [ and more about writing zillions of massive macros.]

I'm not sure I've ever written more than 5 or 6 troff macros.  None of
them were more than 4 lines long.

What I'm eluding to is the use of already written macro packages such
as MM.  The grammar of MM is very simple.  The number of keywords, and
their understandability makes it a bit worse, but far from impossible.
The worst part of learning MM (and troff) is the language used in the
documentation (registers? in a formatter? :-).  However, there are
plenty of well written guides to using MM and troff.

> Maybe it is convnience or maybe it is ego; probably it is both.
> Sure, is efficient to be able to produce a complex document
> without having to screw around with the format each time, but
> the real lure is that  the machine work in ways comfortable to
> me and thus gets out of the way so that I can get some writing
> done.  That is, after all, the point, isn't it?

If I was to claim I was programming while writing a document with
troff, I'd have SERIOUS ego troubles.  MM lets me write without
thinking much about the final "look and feel" of the document.  After
I've done the writing, either I, or someone else, can, with relative
ease, adjust the style of the document.  They don't have to edit every
formatting directive in my document to change the look.
-- 
						Greg A. Woods

woods@{eci386,gate,robohack,ontmoh,tmsoft,gpu.utcs.UToronto.CA,utorgpu.BITNET}
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