Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!ginosko!uunet!mcvax!hp4nl!kunivv1!eykhout
From: eykhout@kunivv1.sci.kun.nl (Victor Eijkhout)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: WYSIWYG = DIY (=hubris)
Message-ID: <387@kunivv1.sci.kun.nl>
Date: 9 Aug 89 12:16:34 GMT
References: <210927@<1989Jul28> <8800031@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <14903@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Reply-To: eykhout@wn2.UUCP (Victor Eijkhout)
Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Lines: 42

In article <14903@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> hugo@griggs (Peter Su) writes:
>I claim that WYSIWIG are overly concerned with form, and no concerned
>enough about with the logical operations that result in the form 
>that you want.

This is an essential point. The discussion so far has been mostly
on capabilities. Well let's grand that a virtuoso can do the same
things with a WYSIWIG system and with a mark-up language (TeX, troff).

Now how about if I am not the designer of the layout. 

Personally I feel that what I turn out is somewhat less execrable than
a lot of what I see, but I am dead sure that a professional designer
will make something that is still a whole lot better. I know, because
I have had the occasion to work with one a number of times.

How about this one: I come to this designer with a manual of which
I have already typed the first 40 pages, say that's 100 sections and
subsections, and she tells me 'Oh please do all your headings
in capitals'.

Or this one: I have keyed in a linear algebra course, hundreds of
exercises, and she says 'It would look nice if all your
exercises [that I did TeXbook style, first two lines indented]
were completely indented, with the number flush against the left
margin and a dotted line leading up to the first word'.

In both cases my texts were in TeX (with some provisory macros
so that I could at least print), and implementing those changes
took 5 minutes each.

Question: can someone tell me that with a wysiwig it is just
as easy to make a global design change?

Conjecture: wysiwig systems are for people who make their own
layout, and who have decided on the definitive layout
before they started keying in the text. This I think is a wrong
way of working. I think I have a right to say this, because I've
produced some 'master pieces of the printing art', and the design
was done by a pro, and only after I had finished the text.

Victor.