Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!casseres
From: casseres@Apple.COM (David Casseres)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Text editor help
Keywords: TextEdit, Tabs
Message-ID: <18288@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 5 Oct 88 17:36:49 GMT
References: <2476@rti.UUCP> <2580001@hpausla.HP.COM> <3845@Portia.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 29

In article <3845@Portia.Stanford.EDU> duggie@Jessica.stanford.edu (Doug Felt) writes:

>Tabs are tricky.  Who knows what tabs mean when you mix left-to-right
>and right-to-left text (arabic)?  What standards are there for tabs
>that are not identically spaced?  Inquiring minds want to know.

There are no standards (though someone may have something they THINK should
be a standard).  Tabs just mean too many things in different applications.
I believe if Apple or anyone else put some kind of tab support into a
TextEdit, most developers would find that it didn't work the way they
wanted, and they wouldn't use it, and it would just be a big waste.

Nobody knows how text formatting (tabs are just one prong on the iceberg)
should really be done.  That's why there are so many word processors, all
of them terrible in my humble opinion.  That's why there's such a great
opportunity for someone to forget all the existing ones, make a break-
through, do it right, be a big hero, and become incredibly wealthy.  That's
why I hope Apple doesn't try to build a high-end text formatter into the
system, unless of course someone at Apple happens to make that breakthrough!

>Anyway, one suspects Apple will come out with something to support multiple
>scripts, if they are serious about the script manager.  Whether they support
>tabs, columns, superscript, etc, however, is another question.  I guess
>they have to leave something for people to make money at...

That last sentence says a lot.

David Casseres
and in case anyone wonders, Apple has shown little interest in my opinions.