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From: bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger)
Newsgroups: comp.text,comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Which is better?  Textprocessing langs or DeskTop publishing pgms?
Summary: The straight scoop
Message-ID: <1217@sas.UUCP>
Date: 13 Sep 89 17:26:35 GMT
References: <509@mjbtn.MFEE.TN.US> <2650@trantor.harris-atd.com> <1463@levels.sait.edu.au>
Reply-To: bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger)
Organization: SAS Institute Inc, Cary NC
Lines: 41

The more you
    - process long documents
    - process documents which are basically the same in layout
      but with the data changed
    - produce documents from data bases or import data automatically
    - need to produce different appearances from the same document
      (eg, a report and a book chapter from the same text, with different
      design requirement)
    - have lots of numbered sections, cross-references, and floating
      figure which you don't want to have to spend lots of time with
    - want to do things that the designers could not possibly have
      anticipated
    - are comfortable with a programming approach
    - detest doing the same menial operations over and over
. . . the more you want a document-processing language.


The more you
    - process short documents
    - care a lot about the visual appearance at the "micro" level
      (eg, ad layout)
    - want to spend lots of time fussing over the precise placement
      of each piece so it's "just so"
    - have lots of different layouts you want to do
    - don't need to do things which your package won't "know about"
    - have lots of graphics you want to integrate
    - are comfortable with an interactive, visual approach to tasks
    - detest spending hours to figure out how to accomplish a simple
      task.
. . . the more want a WYSIWYG system.

The last two points are the biggest ones for most people.  Unless you are
at one the extremes (doing one-page flyers or doing hundreds of books filled
with automatically generated data), you can probably get either sort of
system to do the task (especially since these two are growing into each
other); your appoach to life will be the determining factor in most cases.
-- 
-- Brian, the Man from Babble-on.		...!mcnc!rti!sas!bts
--
"Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part
that isn't thinking isn't thinking of" -- THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS