Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!sun!schultz@mmm.serc.3m.com From: schultz@mmm.serc.3m.com (John C Schultz) Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop Subject: WYSIWYG vs programmed phototypsetting Message-ID: <69802@sun.uucp> Date: 23 Sep 88 16:08:22 GMT Sender: news@sun.uucp Distribution: comp Lines: 55 Approved: desktop-request%plaid@sun.com What do people feel are the advantages of WYSIWYG phototypsetting (e.g. MacWrite, FRAMEMAKE) vs what I will call "programmed" phototypesetting (e.g TeX, LaTeX)? To start things off, here are my opinions, hopefully cleansed of religious opinions. pro WYSIWYG - easy to learn - hardcopy is identical to display - immediate "results" - easy creation/addition of pictures, images, etc. con WYSIWYG - difficult to implement style and formatting changes - the writer becomes concerned more with the format than content - manual labeling of page numbers, references, figures, sections, etc. - speed - printing speed is generally limited by printer - hardcopy is sometimes NOT identical to the display (tabs for instance) - good ones can be very expensive (e.g. Interleaf) pro PROGRAMMED - worry about content - then formatting - computer re-numbering of pages - computer cross-referencing and numbering figures, tables, eqs, etc. - softcopy output IS possible (eg. texx) - computer generated index, list of tables, figures, etc. - speed - compilation makes printing fast (duplicates are easy) - custom forms for common document "feel" - e.g. memo.sty in LaTeX for memos - user does not have to align table or columns of numbers (\tabular in LaTeX) - TeX and derivatives are public domain (or close to it) con PROGRAMMED - long "compile time" - uncertain page breaks - difficult to debug - many hardcopies are needed to correctly format complex documents - TeX and derivatives are public domain (or close to it) -- john c. schultz schultz@mmm.UUCP (612) 733-4047 3M Center, Bldg 518-1-1, St. Paul, MN 55144-1000 The opinions expressed herein are, as always, my own and not 3M's. ---------------------------------------- Submissions to: desktop@plaid.sun.com Administrivia to: desktop-request@plaid.sun.com UUCP: {amdahl,decwrl,hplabs}!sun!plaid!desktop{-request} Archives can be gotten from the archive-server. To get information on the archive-server, send mail to: archive-server@plaid.sun.com -or- sun!plaid!archive-server with a subject line of help