Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!hplabs!hpcc01!hp-ptp!hp-ses!wunder
From: wunder@hp-ses.SDE.HP.COM (Walter Underwood)
Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Any good WYSIWIG desktop publishing software on UNIX Workstations?
Message-ID: <4540005@hp-ses.SDE.HP.COM>
Date: 10 Jul 90 18:38:36 GMT
References: <1924@runxtsa.runx.oz.au>
Organization: HP SW Engineering Systems - Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 34


        Frame really wins on "unusual" layouts, like newsletters and such.
   It has, hands down, the best mathematical WYSIWYG typesetter in the
   business.

Have you tried ArborText Publisher?  Full TeX rules in the equation
editor.  All AMS symbols, etc.

The Publisher is different from WYSIWIG -- it is a structured document
editor.  It runs on X11 or SunView, and it does change fonts and sizes on
the screen, but it saves page breaks, columns and that stuff for the
previewer.  Tags (chapter, section, x-ref, today, ...) are visible as
small boxes on the screen, so they can be selected, deleted, changed, etc.

I like it a lot better than the WYSIWIG approach, because it separates the
structure of the document from the style (much like Scribe, LaTeX, or
SGML).  I think there are advantages in that approach for everyone, but it
is particylarly attractive to programmers, since they already understand
manipulating nested structures.

One nice advantage of this approach is the support for "conditinal
compilation".  If the a document needs to be published in two versions
(SunView and X, for example), you can add ifdefs for the parts that
need changed, then print the versions separately.

As mentioned for Frame, The Publisher has keyboard equivalents for
everything.  It also has command language eqivalents for all actions,
and those can be combined into macros, and bound to keys, mouse actions,
or menus.

Check it out before charging off after Frame or Interleaf.  I've tried
both of those, and like the Publisher better.

wunder