Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!hsi!stpstn!cox
From: cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Word Processing under Mac vs Unix (was Nisus)
Message-ID: <5309@stpstn.UUCP>
Date: 1 Jul 90 21:00:49 GMT
References: <3918@dogie.macc.wisc.edu>
Reply-To: cox@stpstn.UUCP (Brad Cox)
Organization: Stepstone
Lines: 42

In article <3918@dogie.macc.wisc.edu> yahnke@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Ross Yahnke, MACC) writes:
>In article <1990Jun28.204508.18882@ariel.unm.edu>, wilcox@hydra.unm.edu (Sherman Wilcox ED.FOUND) writes...
>-I am currently a MS Word user, but I am considering switching to
>-Nisus (or at least using both word processors). Certain features of

I use Nisus and MS Word on the Mac and vi under Unix extensively. I agree with 
your evaluation of Nisus vs Word, except that I find that shortcomings in 
the present release of Nisus (2.03; a new release advertised as removing them
is due real soon now) have caused me to gravitate back to Word for serious
writing, reserving Nisus for only those cases where I really have to have
regular expression string searches (cleaning up downloaded text, for example
stock prices and the like).

However this whole experience trying to find a capable word processor in Macland
has been a real disappointment, compared to text processing under Unix/vi/troff,
which I used for my first book, lousy user interface and all.

When I bought a Mac for my second book, I bought Microsoft Word 3.0 sight
unseen, figuring that the makers of a top of the line word processor would
have their poop in a group such that I wouldn't have to screw around with bugs
and missing features. Wrong on both counts. The bugs in Word 3.0 were far
worse than anything I've ever dealt with under unix, and I continue to be 
plagued with Word 4.0's abysmal page layout logic with respect to pagination 
of footnotes and embedded figures. And I was totally blind sided by the
one thing that I never expected, Word's (and most other Mac utilities, 
excepting MPW) amateurish conception of what search and replace is all about.

For all of its flaws, vi does have its priorities straight on that one (and
presumably emacs too, although I rarely use it). Even Nisus does not really
up to serious use.

Probably the thing I miss the most is the absence of anything corresponding 
to the g/re/x command, which allows one to search (g) for a regular expression
(re) and then apply any command (x) to the lines that match. 

I shudder to think of how "the rest of us" are replacing repeated spaces
with tabs in order to load stock prices and the like into spreadsheets.

-- 

Brad Cox; cox@stepstone.com; CI$ 71230,647; 203 426 1875
The Stepstone Corporation; 75 Glen Road; Sandy Hook CT 06482