Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site glacier.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!nsc!glacier!reid From: reid@glacier.ARPA (Brian Reid) Newsgroups: net.text Subject: Re: embedded-command text systems Message-ID: <1861@glacier.ARPA> Date: Sun, 1-Dec-85 11:56:36 EST Article-I.D.: glacier.1861 Posted: Sun Dec 1 11:56:36 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 3-Dec-85 07:34:14 EST References: <471@harvard.ARPA> <773@mmintl.UUCP> <734@tpvax.fluke.UUCP> <731@othervax.UUCP> Reply-To: reid@glacier.UUCP (Brian Reid) Distribution: net Organization: Stanford University, Computer Systems Lab Lines: 27 In article <731@othervax.UUCP> ray@othervax.UUCP (Raymond D. Dunn) writes: >Tex, and the current UNIX tools for typeset text preparation, are >rapidly becoming dinosaurs - they probably have already become so. >Visible typography commands embedded in text, and separate H & J/page >makeup runs are passe BALONEY. There is a place in the world for WYSIWYG systems that do not use embedded commands, but there is a large class of documents that cannot be done at all well with the kind of interactive system that you are talking about. Anything where the structure is as important as the content. Cookbooks like the @i[Joy of Cooking]. Encyclopedias. Airline schedules. Dictionaries. Reference manuals for computer software. Interactive systems are just fine for small documents, and for documents whose appearance is extremely important with respect to their content. They are not OK for large documents. Whether or not interactive systems will EVER be ok for this kind of material is an open research topic. My own belief is that it is possible to build an interactive system that does not throw away all of the extra capability that the batch systems give you right now. However, as long as the interactive text formatting programs are being programmed by people who think that interactive systems are inherently better, there is no danger of them becoming better. -- Brian Reid decwrl!glacier!reid Stanford reid@SU-Glacier.ARPA