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From: jsweet@ICS.UCI.EDU (Jerry Sweet)
Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Any good WYSIWIG desktop publishing software on UNIX Workstations?
Message-ID: <4662.647633645@ics.uci.edu>
Date: 10 Jul 90 18:18:44 GMT
Lines: 43
In-reply-to: Your message of 10 Jul 90 12:57:02 +0000.
             <3944@trantor.harris-atd.com>


At the risk of appearing to be a proponent of Interleaf, I'd like to respond
to a few comments made by Chuck Musciano:

> Frame is an outstanding tool, far superior to InterLeaf (IMHO).
[Cites platforms, heterogenous environment support, price,
and user interface. -j]

Interleaf is indeed a tough sell compared to Frame.  I've heard lots
of complaints about Interleaf and few about Frame.  For most small
one-off document needs, Frame is probably the way to go in WYSIWYG
editors for Unix platforms.  However, for someone maintaining a large
document with many different versions, I'd have to point out
Interleaf's "effectivity control," called "conditional text" by any
normal human being.  Also, Interleaf has pretty good table maintenance
features; I haven't found an equivalent in Frame.  (That's not to say
it isn't there; I just haven't found it yet.)  It is true that you PAY
for these additional features in Interleaf.  On the other hand, at
least you can get the feature extensions if you need them.  And at
least Interleaf has a floating license server now (for an additional
fee), as Frame has had for a while.

One big objection that I have to WYSIWYGs in general is that they tend
to live in their own hermetically sealed worlds, making it difficult
to work with external configuration management requirements.  To
mitigate this, Interleaf has announced something that they call
"Active Documents."  I haven't seen it in action yet, but it looks
good on paper.  It sounds like a less limited version (in terms of
display) of Macintosh's programmable HyperCard software.

If you can stand the learning curve and complicated maintenance
required, WYSIWYG document production systems still can't beat TeX or
LaTeX on platforms supported, heterogeneous environment support,
price, extensibility or hackability.  You pay one way or the other,
though: time and brainpower to deal with TeX, or $$$ for WYSIWYG.

Disclaimer: interested bystander only.

I'd like to hear comments from document hacks who've used both systems
and who've had to deal with document and graphical import/export
issues.  I've used Interleaf and Frame just a little bit,
experimentally.  Has anyone used them "in anger" in the heat of a
larger project context?