Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnewsl!npn
From: npn@cbnewsl.att.com (nils-peter.nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Price of DWB 3.1
Summary: Why DWB 3.1 is worth the price
Message-ID: <1990Nov15.211043.21640@cbnewsl.att.com>
Date: 15 Nov 90 21:10:43 GMT
References: <1990Nov5.022533.29625@nixtdc.uucp> <16706@letni.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 27



In re: Someone explain what
DWB 3.1 can do that I can't with 2.0 and a bit of net software?

===
DWB 2.0 was regrettably buggy and very nonportable.
If you are a University with slave labor you perhaps did
not mind the effort to make DWB run on various architectures.
3.1 is completely portable to BSD and all System V's.
3.1 also has a first-rate PostScript support package;
with 2.0 and net software you are probably getting APS-5
width tables sent to PostScript, which yields sloppy spacing
on final output. We have timed our troff-to-postscript
translator against some of the commercial competition and
measured 3 to 5 times speed improvement (not only CPU,
but printer speed; the printer was running 2 ppm with some
of the competitive products vs 8 ppm with dpost on
conventional Canon printers).
The 3.1 version has been used to publish many high-quality
books and magazines, including some AT&T documentation that
runs into the thousands of pages. This is "industrial strength"
text formatting. I will concede that if all you want is
a two page business letter, there are lots of PC alternatives.
Oh yes, and there is now extensive documentation
for end users, including tutorials with lots of
examples. Machine readable (troff, of course).