Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!think!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hplabsz!taylor
From: reggie@pdn.UUCP (George W. Leach)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: The Aesthetics of Computers
Message-ID: <1469@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM>
Date: 23 Jan 88 01:25:35 GMT
Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM
Organization: Paradyne Corporation,   Largo FL
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Approved: taylor@hplabs

Dave Taylor talks about printed versus on-line textual displays and
the aesthetic differences between them...

I think that with either media you can create an aesthetically pleasing 
or completely ugly form of communication.  Your example of the CRT is the 
most common these days in terms of computer communication with the human.  
However, much progress has been made since bit-mapped displays were
introduced in quantity.  PostScript-based display systems (eg. NeWS) also
help with quality of typography.  Of course, we are not at the point yet
where this is the norm, but give it time.

Normally, if I print out a long document it is because I don't have the 
time to read it during this terminal session and I wish it in a form that 
allows me to take it with me where I may not have access to it on the
screen.

I think another issue is access to information.  The printed matter is 
still the most common media of accessing information.  The newspaper is 
so successful due to the fact that it is (1) cheap, (2) mallable (in terms 
of I can fold it while on the train or spread it out on the table), 
(3) portable, and easily obtained.

In cases where a code listing does not easily fit on the page or I just 
don't feel like paging back and forth in a screen editor, I prefer to 
print out code listings and put them in a binder :-)

> Another example pops into mind; when I work on articles, I always
> use a computer for composition, but .. changes are done [on paper]

I do my own editing on-line.  However, if I wish a colleague to review 
and edit something, I always give it to them in hardcopy form.  I guess 
this is out of habit from the days when I used Scribe under VM.  Under 
UNIX one can simply as the person to take a copy of the document from 
a directory and work on it.  However, I know many people who prefer to 
be handed the hardcopy to review.

For style and visual effect I want to see the printed hardcopy, but this 
is only due to not having an appropriate viewing filter for a CRT.  On 
a Sun or other such workstation, it should be possible to view the 
document as it would appear on the printed page.  However, I think this
is a separate function from editing (no WYSIWYG editing).

Several years ago I saw a demonstration of the DEC MicroVAX II Graphics
Workstation with a WYSIWYG editor for document composition/viewing/editing.
The idea was quite appealing, white paper background with fonts that could
be changed using a mouse.  I know that Xerox was into this field long ago,
and that electronic publishing is a fast growing field, but how common are
these practices on general purpose systems?

George W. Leach