Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucdavis!deneb.ucdavis.edu!cck
From: cck@deneb.ucdavis.edu (Earl H. Kinmonth)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: WYSIWYG flamage
Message-ID: <5060@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Date: 6 Aug 89 05:29:14 GMT
References: <210927@<1989Jul28> <77900017@p.cs.uiuc.edu> <8891@attctc.Dallas.TX.US>
Sender: uucp@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu
Reply-To: cck@deneb.ucdavis.edu (Earl H. Kinmonth)
Organization: University of California, Davis
Lines: 34

[attribution removed; don't get bent out of shape!]

>  >Troff is also missing some formatting niceties, such as the ability to
>  >wrap text around a picture, or lay out pages like PageMaker or other
>  >page layout programs.

Maybe I'm an "ivory tower" intellectual out of touch with the world,
but where, I ask, outside of PEOPLE magazine and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER,
is the ability to wrap text around pictures of any consequence?

I'm an historian. I've never seen an historical text that would have
been better by virtue of having the text wrapped around pictures. I
also did undergraduate work in electrical engineering and business. I
can't imagine a situation where anything I read in these disciplines
would have been improved, either in appearance or ability to transmit
needed information, by having text wrapped around pictures.

Indeed, the only places I've seen text wrapped around pictures is in

(a) comic books;

(b) shoppers and junk mailer inserts in newspapers.

Is my education incomplete? Am I missing something? Will my colleagues
suddenly stand up and applaud if I can wrap text around pictures? Will
my students suddenly vote me teacher of the year if I can give them
handouts with the syllabus wrapped around a picture of Hirohito (I
teach Japanese history)?

I have about three meters of shelf space devoted to various computer
manuals and textbooks ranging from Aho and company on compilers to
Sedgewick and others on algorithms. Am I intellectually lacking because
I can't figure out how any of these would be improved by having text
wrapped around the illustrations?