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From: jqj@cornell.UUCP (J Q Johnson)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: More on WordPerfect, TROFF, and DIF
Message-ID: <25@cornell.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 1-Jan-86 05:36:41 EST
Article-I.D.: cornell.25
Posted: Wed Jan  1 05:36:41 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 3-Jan-86 01:47:42 EST
References: <488@imsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: jqj@cornell.UUCP (J Q Johnson)
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept.
Lines: 16

In article <488@imsvax.UUCP> ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden) writes:
>               WordPerfect, as well as  most ordinary  word processors, AND
>          THE NAVY  DIF, AND  IBM'S DCA/DISOSS, thinks in terms of columns.
>          It is not possible to write a reasonable  conversion routine from
>          ANY of  these to  anything (such  as TROFF)  which ONLY thinks in
>          fractions  of  an  inch.

I'm curious about this claim.  I use WordPerfect on my PC and Star/Viewpoint
on my 8014s; Ted is right that both are nice wysiwyg editors.  But I thought
that WP @i[could] deal with proportional-spaced fonts!  Also, it seems to me 
that one can always go from a fixed-width world to a troff-like world just by 
using fixed-width fonts in troff.  It seems to me that the problem here is 
that DIF is too restrictive, not that either WP, troff, or Star are.

Ted, could you elucidate?  Or, if it's too technical and specific for this 
news group, move the discussion?