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From: MARWK@levels.sait.edu.au
Newsgroups: comp.text,comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Which is better?  Textprocessing langs or DeskTop publishing pgms?
Message-ID: <1463@levels.sait.edu.au>
Date: 8 Sep 89 11:55:45 GMT
References: <509@mjbtn.MFEE.TN.US> <2650@trantor.harris-atd.com>
Organization: Sth Australian Inst of Technology
Lines: 40

In article <2650@trantor.harris-atd.com>, chuck@melmac.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano) writes:
> In article <509@mjbtn.MFEE.TN.US> root@mjbtn.MFEE.TN.US (Mark J. Bailey) writes:
>>Can anyone reading this give me an idea of the pros and cons of each 
>>approach to laser typesetting/publishing?  In particular where would
>>troff and/or TeX be better than Interleaf and where would it be worse
>>(other than its complexity)?  Is there some things that troff/TeX can
>>do (being a language of sorts) that Interleaf cannot?  Where should I
>>channel my efforts?
> 
>      Here is my $0.02 worth...
> 
>      You would be crazy to learn a non WYSIWYG package when you are just on the
> verge of getting a WYSIWYG package.  Troff and TeX are nothing more than arcane
> programming languages.   If you like assembly language programming, you'll
> love troff or TeX.  The learning curve on these things is very steep, and
> difficult for non-tech types, like secretaries.
> 
>      People will contend that there are certain things you can't do in a
> WYSIWYG tool that you can in troff or TeX, but I don't know that that is
> true anymore.  TeX is excellent at equation typesetting, but the new
> equation editor from Frame is quite good and gives symbolic manipulation
> features to boot.  Plus, you could always try Publisher, from ArborText,
> which uses TeX to set its equations.
> 
>      I am an unabashed Frame fan, but InterLeaf is loaded with features.
> Its interface leaves a lot to be desired, and it can be really expensive
> for the full system.  I would suggest that you get demo tapes from the
> "big three" (Frame, InterLeaf, and Publisher) and give them a try.  Each
> has a certain niche, and you should try to find your niche before arbitrarily
> picking a tool.
> 
>      If you go with troff or TeX, don't say I didn't warn you :-)
> 


I use TRIAD Inc.'s T3 (read T-cubed) technical word processing system - 

I cannot imagine a better WYSIWYG system!

Ray Kennington