Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!pyramid!voder!kontron!optilink!cramer
From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: The GNU Manifesto
Message-ID: <1902@optilink.UUCP>
Date: 1 Feb 88 17:25:20 GMT
References: <9591@tekecs.TEK.COM> <328@splut.UUCP> <3144@briar.Philips.Com> <1886@optilink.UUCP> <1309@gumby.cs.wisc.edu>
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
Lines: 38

> >> I work in an enviroment that is virtually overwhelmed with the presence
> >> of IBM PCs.  fortunately, we do not have to rely upon them, as we also
> >> have other machines.  It is my job to help people that come into my lab
> >> use the machine of their choice with software and peripherals.  In terms
> >> of comparative returns for money spent on hardware, and in terms of
> >> efficeincy for the users of my lab, the IBM PC is a dismal failure.  
> >  
> > See Microsoft Word for good support  of HP and PostScript laser printers.
> > See practically any word processing package you can name for support for
> > proportionally spaced print.  Perhaps you are confusing the deficiencies
> > of your printers with the PC.  You *are* confusing the deficiencies of the
> > software that is in use at your site with a deficiency of the computer.
> 
> I do use MS Word, and it is certainly my first choice for the IBM PC, as it
> works better than anything else.  Yet, if you take the logical next step,
> and compare it with MS Word on the Macintosh, you will find that it falls
> short.  As for handling proportionally spaced print, on a machine that can't
> even display such print on the monitor, I'll beleive it when I see it.

Are you saying that Word doesn't provide proportional spacing?  I KNOW FOR A 
FACT that it does on the Epson LQ800, and the Apple LaserWriter -- both
by looking at the printed pages, and by examing the control codes sent
by MS Word.

>       As far as I, and many other serious users are concerned, a 
> deficiency with the software available for a machine IS a deficiency
> of the machine!                                      --

If you insist on that viewpoint, then MS Word definitely makes the PC
superior to the vast majority of UNIX systems out there for word processing.
Most of these systems don't even HAVE word processing -- they have troff
and an editor.

My experience has been that a lot of UNIX-snobs have NEVER done word 
processing -- they think troff is a word processor.  (Sort of like calling
a hammer a "high-tech tool".)

Clayton E. Cramer