Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbatt!osu-eddie!lien From: lien@osu-eddie.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.text Subject: Re: Why Troff ? Message-ID: <3016@osu-eddie.UUCP> Date: Fri, 30-Jan-87 02:12:40 EST Article-I.D.: osu-eddi.3016 Posted: Fri Jan 30 02:12:40 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 31-Jan-87 07:52:10 EST Sender: lien@osu-eddie.UUCP Organization: Ohio State Univ, Computer Science Department Lines: 38 From: Yao-Nan Lien Superiority is not sufficient to have people to choose a particular typesetting tool or to switch from one to another. I am tire of hearing that "TeX is better, so you should switch to Tex " Who is going to rewrite my thousands of Shell scripts and papers written in past 5 years? Those Shell scripts are a mix of troff, ex, sed, awk, ....etc. I don't even know can TeX support such an environment or not. What I mean support is the capability of mixing with other UNIX tools to have a NEW tool quickly by a noraml user. Could we list out the criteria to evaluate a typesetting tool from the users' point of view ( NOT SYSTEM PEOPLE's !) first. Then, give adequate weight to each item we listed for different types of users. THEN, evaluate these tools against these criteria. PS. There is an article in ACM computing survey ( 3 or 4 year back) doing an interesting evaluation. ------------------------------------------------------------ Yao-Nan Lien Department of Computer and Information Science Ohio State University 2036, Neil Ave. Mall Columbus, Ohio 43210-1277 Tel 614 292-5236 CSNet : lien@ohio-state.CSNET Arpa : lien@ohio-state.arpa UUCP : {cbosgd, ihnp4}!osu-eddie!lien