Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hpl-opus!hpnmdla!hpsad!walter From: walter@hpsad.HP.COM (Walter Coole) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex Subject: Re: Why learn Tex? Message-ID: <13590003@hpsad.HP.COM> Date: 1 Mar 90 17:59:12 GMT References: Organization: HP Signal Analysis Div - Rohnert Park, CA Lines: 17 There will always be a need for an easy-to-learn way to create documents. Word processors are fairly good at that aspect, but generally are limited in their capability (consider the popularity of desk top publishing programs, which provide some extended capability). No one has yet come up with an adequate way to create documents that combines a WYSIWYG interface with the kind of expressibility that TeX has. As word processors get more sophisticated, they tend to more resemble programming languages. TeX (and troff) is one persons choice of how best to make that trade-off; WordPerfect is another. They fill different needs for different users. Both views are subject to ongoing improvements. I think that there will be some convergence, eg. Vortex, but I'm not going to hold my breath. TeX is well suited to publishing books on mathematics, but many people find it convenient for all sorts of documents. WordPerfect is well suited to writing business letters, but many people find it convenient for all sorts of documents. Why is there any need for pistachio ice cream, when vanilla is far more popular, and meets most people's needs?