Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!kramden.acf.nyu.edu!brnstnd
From: brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Writing and word-processing
Message-ID: <8619:Dec1314:03:4290@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: 13 Dec 90 14:03:42 GMT
References: <39952@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: IR
Lines: 18

In article <39952@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> kemnitz@postgres.berkeley.edu (Greg Kemnitz) writes:
> Hopefully the notions of a "strawman", "tinman", and "ironman" draft that were
> so closely tied to the inflexibility of pen and paper will go the way of the
> stone tablet.

Hopefully not. It is hellishly useful to organize revisions into
separate drafts.

Your point is that word processors can push writing over the threshold
between a pain and a joy. So what? That doesn't diminish the importance
of writing well---and good prose requires a brain, not a keyboard.

Russell's analogy: An air conditioner can push Texas driving over the
threshold between a pain and a joy. So what? That doesn't diminish the
importance of driving well---and good driving requires a brake, not an
air conditioner.

---Dan