Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!lll-lcc!unisoft!gethen!farren
From: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: The GNU Manifesto
Message-ID: <672@gethen.UUCP>
Date: 10 Feb 88 18:40:52 GMT
References: <9591@tekecs.TEK.COM> <328@splut.UUCP> <3144@briar.Philips.Com> <1886@optilink.UUCP> <34@obie.UUCP>
Reply-To: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren)
Organization: There's Unix there in Oakland
Lines: 61

In article <34@obie.UUCP> wes@obie.UUCP (Barnacle Wes) writes:
>
>This newsgroup seems to love to point to WP as a good example of why
>the IBM PC succeeded in business, why it is a good machine for the
>price, etc. ad nauseum.  The PC is a LOUSY word processor because the
>IBM PC keyboard is a disgusting piece of garbage.  Have you ever been
>in a room with 40 people typing on IBM PCs at the same time?

Have you ever been in an office where 40 people were doing word processing
at the same time?  For that matter, have you ever done serious word
processing as a professional?  Anyone who is typing at 75+ WPM (which
is a pretty low speed for a professional word processor) relys heavily
on tactile and audible feedback - you just can't go that fast if you 
can't be sure, without looking at the screen, whether or not you have 
actually hit the keys, rather than just stroked them but not hard enough
to produce a character.  The IBM PC keyboard is the first personal
computer keyboard I've ever used which allows me to type as quickly and
accurately as I can on a garden-variety Selectric typewriter, and it
is precisely because of the keyboards tactile and audible response that
I can.

There is a good deal of difference, which most computer jocks seem to
either never realize or forget, between word processing and using an
editor.  As someone who has spent a lot of time doing both, I can tell
you that never, not in one million years, would any professional word
processing service consider using something like emacs/troff to do
their work.  It just doesn't make any sense from their point of view.
Neither should program editing or serious document preparation be done
on a word processor such as Word Perfect.  That doesn't make any more
sense.

If you want a real education, try doing word processing for an income
some time.  I guarantee you that it will give you a lot more respect
for word processors, both the software variety and the human types.

>If you want a good word processing computer, buy an Atari Mega ST.

I don't want to get too heavily into the computer wars, but nobody
I know would consider the Ataris as serious word processing computers.
The keyboard is, flatly, abysmal, with a mushy feel that will increase
your error rate significantly.  The available software is minimal,
although this is changing as time goes by.  And the support available
for the machine is so close to non-existant as to be a joke.

>	"Against Stupidity, The Gods Themselves Contend in Vain."

Which I agree with, except that I would change "Stupidity" to read
"Stupidity and Ignorance".  While its most virulent manifestations
don't show up in the technical groups too much, there is still too
much pontification by people who, basically, don't know one damn
thing about what they are talking about.  If you want me to accept
your statements about word processing, then you'd better be able to
convince me that you know what the needs of word processors are, 
and what the work they are doing, in legal, medical, and business
offices everywhere, is.

-- 
Michael J. Farren             | "INVESTIGATE your point of view, don't just 
{ucbvax, uunet, hoptoad}!     | dogmatize it!  Reflect on it and re-evaluate
        unisoft!gethen!farren | it.  You may want to change your mind someday."
gethen!farren@lll-winken.llnl.gov ----- Tom Reingold, from alt.flame