Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!apple!portal!portal!cup.portal.com!FelineGrace
From: FelineGrace@cup.portal.com (Dana B Bourgeois)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Word processing/DTP (Was: Re: Amiga in the home = WYSIWYG n
Message-ID: <26521@cup.portal.com>
Date: 2 Feb 90 07:20:37 GMT
References: <90021.235133JKT100@PSUVM.BITNET> <26352@cup.portal.com>
  <2396@cpsc6a.att.com>
Distribution: usa
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 39

[my line eater is better than your line eater...]

Chris Seaman mentions several points about Desk Top publishing
versus Word Processing versus Text Editing.  Not having used a
DTP program, some of the points are new to me.  But my message
was about "what I'd like to see in a text program".  And I think
I stand by most of original comments.  

See, I want the DTP program to format the text, assign fonts, scale
or rotate the graphics.  Maybe current programs can't do all this.
That's what I'd like to see.  When I am composing on the computer,
I just want to be able to open a file and fill it with text.  I want
lots of ways to move the curser, move blocks of text, delete text, etc.
BAsically something like EMacs or vi.  Now once I have all this text 
in a file, I want to import it into my (mythical) DTP.  How about
if I outline a box that represents a half page column and then click
the menu item that says 'fill the box with text'?  Then I outline
the other half of the page and click on 'scale picture into box'.
Voila!  I have a column with picture.  Create another box at the 
top of the text column, select a font, type the title into a string
requester, and then the title is scaled to fit in the box using 
the selected font.  That is how I would want to do my word processing.

My real point is that in word processing, you type and format at the
same time.  Paragraphs and justification and pages and stuff.  I 
want to do the grunt work of creation - the typing and block moving
and deleting and re-typing without worrying about how the text looks.

Once I have the words, I want to only focus on How It Looks.  Purely
a block, format, page, margin, column, paragraph series of operations.
And since I want to deal with the text as a filled object like a page
or column, add in graphics handling too.  Deluxe Paint, Deluxe Video,
now I want to see Deluxe Text.  :)

Really, am I the only one who wants two different programs.  One to
specialize in the content of what I say and one to specialize in how
it looks when people read it.

Dana Bourgeois @ cup.portal.com