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From: rgale@pnet01.cts.com (Ryan Gale)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: HELP! We need a scientific WP.
Message-ID: <2565@crash.cts.com>
Date: 20 Feb 88 10:36:17 GMT
Sender: news@crash.cts.com
Organization: People-Net [pnet01], El Cajon CA
Lines: 39

Isaac_K_Rabinovitch@cup.portal.com writes:
>Possibly Lotus Manuscript (which PC Mag. skipped for some reason) comes
>close.  You have to use an equation language, but there appears
>to be some immediate feedback.  Unfortunately, I hear that Manuscript
>is buggy, and difficult to use.  Don't know what its RAM requirements are,
>but I'm not optimistic.

No, no immediate feedback.  I've never used eqn in Unix, but suspect that
Manuscript's equation language is comparable, if not identical [it's even
invoked by the keyword "\eqn ..."].  In order to see the results, you must
either print it out or "preview" it -- i.e., print to the screen.  This
requires (a) saving the file, (b) loading the print formatting program, (c)
reading in the file, (d) specifying the print parameters, and (e) printing/
previewing the work.  This can take a significant amount of time if you're
dealing with a large file.

RAM requirements:  "At least 512K RAM (640K is recommended)."  Fortunately,
it supports EMS, which I highly recommend.

I've not run into any bugs.  As for its difficulty, well... I'd rather just
say that it's _different_.  Since it allows me to do things that I'd never
even consider doing with any other word processor, I don't have the "auto-
matic reflexes" established yet to intuitively recognize situations where
a specific Manuscript capability could/should be used.  I think that a better
description would be "ponderous".

Don't misunderstand -- I rather like the package, and it's my word processor
of choice for any document requiring numbered paragraphs.  But I definitely
see it as a specialized tool.

Lotus offers a demo version for $10.  This is the full Manuscript editor, 
but doesn't include the spelling checker or any printer drivers.  You can
use the 'preview' feature to get an idea as to how things will look in print,
but this may or may not be satisfactory.  Still, it's well worth looking into.
---  
  Ryan Gale
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