Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!usc!orion.cf.uci.edu!uci-ics!ucla-cs!gast
From: gast@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (David Gast)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: Editing a Macintosh File (never the
Message-ID: <23471@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 2 May 89 19:49:11 GMT
References: <17605@cup.portal.com> <220600002@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU
Reply-To: gast@cs.ucla.edu (David Gast)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 25

In article <220600002@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu writes:

>>To those of you who don't own Mac's, it may surprise you to know one of these
>>updates made it impossible for them to print my file.  They could print
>>something that looked a bit like my file.  What I eventually came away with
>>was only slightly mutilated.  But it took a lot of work just to get that.

>I don't understand how an OPERATING SYSTEM can change the position
>of letters on a page. It is certainly true that going to a new
>version of a WORD PROCESSOR might do so. But don't word processors
>simply tell the printer where on the page to place a certain letter?

The technical problem (as opposed to the software engineering problems
which have already been discussed) is that in spite of claims to the
contrary the Mac is not really WYSIWYG.  The reason is that Postscript
is used by the printer, but another program is used to display on the
screen.  The programs produce different output because they are different.

BTW, I have said nothing about the merits or disadvantages of WYSIWYG
so please no flames about concerning this topic.  (I will say, however,
that I usually use LaTeX).

David Gast
gast@cs.ucla.edu
{uunet,ucbvax,rutgers}!{ucla-cs,cs.ucla.edu}!gast