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From: Adam.Frix@p2.f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: RE: Word Processing under Mac vs Unix (was Nisus)
Message-ID: <60384.2698D9B1@cmhgate.FIDONET.ORG>
Date: 7 Jul 90 05:27:32 GMT
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> I use Nisus and MS Word on the Mac and vi under Unix extensively...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...
> 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.
> ...
> 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


Brad, "the rest of us" are using Vantage to change runs of spaces into tabs,
as well as doing a bunch of other stuff that normal word processors aren't set
up to do.  I don't argue that the Mac doesn't offer what you're used to in Unix;
rather, I suggest that with the Mac, Vantage is a nice complement to _any_ word
processor, a complement I find absolutely necessary and of little inconvenience.
 So I'm using two programs.  So what?  Vantage is a DA, and available any time.
 While lacking the holy GREP that Unix people seem to pray to, Vantage does
fill the holes nicely.

I say:  if Unix tools do what you need, use Unix.  If Mac tools do what you
need, use Mac.  If PC tools do what you need, use PC.  Use the tool that's right
for the job.  Pounding nails with a crescent wrench will ruin your day every
time.

--Adam--


--  
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