Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!mordor!sri-spam!rutgers!uwvax!gumby!austin
From: austin@gumby.cs.wisc.edu (Glenn Austin)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: The GNU Manifesto
Message-ID: <1316@gumby.cs.wisc.edu>
Date: 2 Feb 88 21:20:29 GMT
References: <9591@tekecs.TEK.COM> <328@splut.UUCP> <3144@briar.Philips.Com> <1902@optilink.UUCP>
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 41
Summary: Me! a UNIX-slob!

>> 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.
 
OOPS!  I did not mean to imply that MS word did not handle proportional text,
this is patently untrue.  I do mean to make the point that even it does not
handle proportionally spaced text well, do to the lack of a WYSIWYG type
interface.  This is a major problem with IBM word processors. 

>>       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.

Of course!  any PC is vastly superior to that type of text handling.  I agree!
But this doesn't say anything too great.  for a single user machine, troff and
an editor are not really all that hard to beat.

> 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".)

This may very well be true...
This may be extremely accurate...
BUT WHY THE H*LL ARE YOU CALLING ME A UNIX-SLOB!!!
I could care less about UNIX.  

				     Mr. X. the X-traordinary!
				     austin@gumby.cs.wisc.edu

Reality is but a subset of all the possibilities.