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From: hugo@gnome.cs.cmu.edu (Peter Su)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Old Software (Was: SONIX)
Message-ID: <25@gnome.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Fri, 8-May-87 14:41:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: gnome.25
Posted: Fri May  8 14:41:39 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 9-May-87 20:44:35 EDT
References: <2598@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <1852@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>
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In article <1852@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP> daveh@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (Dave Haynie) writes:
>(is there a XENIX nroff?), and while SCRIBE is probably the largest of the
>three, I ran it on a DEC-20, which can "only" address 256K of memory for any
>one job (in 36 bit words, but still less memory than I've got on my Amiga at
>home).  Even with 90% of the functionality of nroff, there's still room left 
>for WYSIWYG.
>

The problem with Scribe is that the database that it uses to figure out how
to format all your text is (about 3 Meg for version 5 under Unix, I think),
and also like TeX, you have to worry about all the font files for your
printers and all that mess.  TeX fonts take up a LOT of room, I don't think
the problem is as bad with Scribe.

I've been playing with Word 3.0 on the Mac, and it is pretty impressive in
terms of generating  TOCs and indicies...pretty good at math too.  But, none
of these systems really handles BIG things well.

With Word, doing the file management is hard, and keeping track of page
numbers is a pain.

With TeX and Scribe, keeping track of everyting is easy, but "compilation"
times are LONG LONG LONG...I've just been doing a 400 page book with LaTeX,
and if you need to rebuild the TOC, or something, it takes better than 2
hours to redo the whole thing...icky icky icky.

Personally, I like parts of all of these systems, but none of them is really
good enough.  In each case, there's always something that you have to fight
with.

Pete

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