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From: malis@BBN.COM (Andy Malis)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.multi-media
Subject: Re: BBN/Slate users?
Message-ID: <9105102123.AA11178@venera.isi.edu>
Date: 10 May 91 21:12:14 GMT
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> So, help me out, Slate users: What do you REALLY use Slate for?
> And why do you use it instead of more "standard" (and sometimes
> more usable) alternatives?

On my project (packet switch software development) we chose to
use Slate for our document preparation for a number of reasons:

1. We wanted to standardize on ONE set of document tools, to make
   document sharing easy and cut down on wasted time doing format
   switching and having to overcome more than one learning curve.

2. It's cheap and easy to obtain if you are in BBN (that was a
   consideration, but not a major one).

3. We all already had Suns (12 MB Sun 3/50s running SunOS 4.1.1).
   Although some of us on the project have Macs, not all of us do.

4. It does a good job on the sort of documents we are producing
   (functional and design specs, memos, test plans, etc.).

5. It's easy to learn and use, especially if you've ever used
   emacs and/or a Mac before.

6. It's very well integrated with email.  We use email all the
   time.  Between email, NFS, and soft links, it is VERY easy to
   share documents.  (Not in real time; we don't need, or use,
   any of the conferencing stuff).

Although it is easily extensible, we really haven't taken
advantage of that at all.  Most folks run it "bare".  I'm one of
the few people that seems do any personal customization at all.
One thing we have done is a bit of integration with RCS, so that
we can check documents in and out of RCS and when they print, the
document name, RCS version, and checkin date is included in the
header at the top of each page.  This is actually done by
"bbntools", a set of local enhancements to RCS, rather than by
Slate itself.  But the point is (as others have mentioned) that
it is easy to do things your own way when you want to.

We're split about 50/50 between Suntools and X users.  It does
perform better under Suntools, but I like everything else I get
from X so much that I'm willing to put up with the (acceptable)
performance, rather than the better performance under Suntools.

Overall, I like it.  I would be happier if it had more
functionality, especially in the areas of page layout and the
spreadsheets, but it does a good job and its editor is enough
like emacs that I don't have to keep retraining my fingers (we
use emacs for our code and straight text editing).

Andy