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From: cgeiger@ut-ngp.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Mac System Suggestions?
Message-ID: <5149@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-May-87 12:37:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.5149
Posted: Wed May  6 12:37:02 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 8-May-87 01:54:02 EDT
References: <804@sdcc12.ucsd.EDU> <76000009@uiucdcsp> <690@unccvax.UUCP> <324@swanee.OZ>
Organization: UTexas Computation Center, Austin, Texas
Lines: 39

In article <324@swanee.OZ>, gustav@swanee.OZ (Gustav) writes:
> It's not a productive idea to use wysiwyg for writing 300 pages long
> documents like books or theses. To use TeX or troff is much faster and
> easier. You can get TeX for Mac these days (which is apparently a very
> good implementation). Why not to have a go at it?
> 
Horse hockey.  My job is typing papers, and I've used both systems.
TeX or troff/eqn is quicker and more straigtforward for TYPING
mathematics (so far:  I haven't experimented with the new Word's way of
formatting math yet), but troff is a real pain in the ass compared to
wysiwyg for formatting and typing plain text.

First of all, formatting troff is far from instantaneous.  If, for
example, you have a 40-page document, you have to wait a good while
for the thing to be formatted before it will print out.  Then, if
you found out you've made a mistake on, say, page 20, the computer
has to completely reformat the first 19 pages again before page 20
can print out!  There is a lot MORE time involved here than in
pagination and saving with Word.  I guess you could format once
with troff, cat the file into postscript, and then edit that, but what a
pain in the butt; in addition, you'd have to edit your text file
too (to keep things straight).  As of yet there is no troff
previewer (at least none around here), so you can't preview things
to prevent having to print everything out first to make sure you
got everything right.

Second, special page numbering formats (which have to be used in
theses and dissertations) are so much easier to create in the new
Word; with troff, you have to learn how to create macros, etc.

There's simply no question that the new Word is better than using
troff/eqn.

cheers, from
charles s. geiger
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