Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!tuegate.tue.nl!tuewsd!wsinkees
From: wsinkees@lso.win.tue.nl (Kees Huizing)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Why learn Tex?
Message-ID: <957@tuewsd.lso.win.tue.nl>
Date: 2 Mar 90 10:46:58 GMT
References: <E5f$a51@cs.psu.edu> <13590003@hpsad.HP.COM>
Sender: wsinkees@lso.win.tue.nl (Kees Huizing)
Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Lines: 47

walter@hpsad.HP.COM (Walter Coole) writes:

>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.

Note that there are WYSIWYG formula editors (Expressionist, MathType, both
for the Macintosh) that can translate the visually built formula to TeX.

>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. 

I am.  When I make the choice to use TeX, it's only because there is no
better alternative.  With better I mean: with better output and more
standard.  The ASCII source text and the wide acception in academic
environments makes it *the* vehicle to exchange documents by e-mail -- if
there are formulas in --, to write a paper with remote co-authors and to
edit a paper out of electronic submissions.  But I hate the edit-compile-print
cycle  (we can not preview - yet).  When I see the people around me struggling
to get acquainted to (La)TeX and I see myself still struggling to achieve
something in my text I have not done before, I think there is a *huge*
interest in tools that combine the WYSIMoreOrLessWYG interface with the
advantages of TeX.  But even a program that translates MS-Word documents or
something alike to TeX or, preferably, to LaTeX would be very welcome.
-- Someone listening out there?

>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?

But there do exist people who want pistachio ice cream without being forced
to eat it with chopsticks.
						Kees
-- 
Kees Huizing - Eindhoven Univ of Techn - Dept Math & Comp Sc - The Netherlands
DOMAIN: wsinkees@win.tue.nl    BITNET: wsdckeesh@heitue5    FAX: +31-40-436685