[geeks] Re: [rescue] Re: nuking M$ from orbit

[Greg A. Woods]

[ On Friday, August 31, 2001 at 22:01:07 (+0100), David Cantrell wrote: ]
> Subject: [geeks] Re: [rescue] Re: nuking from orbit

I really Really REALLY *HATE* that stupid munging of the subject line!!!!

> I rather liked the Word Perfect way of doing things.  Even in the GUI
> versions, you could, as well as the usual WYSIWYG, split the screen into
> two, one being plain fixed-width text with formatting codes visible, the
> other being a WYSIWYG rendition of the section you were working on.

The fact that's often even necessary in WordPerfect is a MAJOR MAJOR
MAJOR design flaw!

Note how often you can have literally bazillions of formatting codes
stuffed in some invisible place that appear to do nothing on the
WYSIWYG screen?  YUCK!  BLECH!  GAK!

What's really most frustrating by it is that *EVERY* time I've ever been
suckered into helping some poor lumbering fool (or even serious software
experts!) try to figure out some lame quirk in that crap I've had to
show them how to delete all the unnecessary formatting codes and then,
miracle of miracles, whatever they were trying to do in the first place
"suddenly" starts to "just work"!  It makes me want to turn into some
insane murduring animal!  Oh, how I long for a good full moon and to
find a bunch of WP programmers in a dark alley some night!

>  When
> I'm TeXing, I really miss that.

Miss what?  You mean the what-you-see-is-not-often-even-close-to-what-
you'll-get-on-paper screen?  Why?

Are you using an X11 screen at those times?  Don't you know how to set
up something like xdvi or gv to show you the formatted output?  It's
relatively easy to even automatically update the preview every time you
save the/any document source file.

>  And Lyx, whilst I like it, isn't mature
> enough for full-time use.  The table rendering, in particular, is a bit
> crap.

A WYSIWYG "word processor" is just a crutch in any case -- the fact
they're broken or ill-fitting is simply a hint that you shouldn't be
using them for anything more complex than they are capable of in the
first place.  Learn to walk on your own two legs and you'll be much
happier! ;-)

> Pity their Windows product was such a steaming pile of dung in other
> areas.

Don't use Winblows -- don't use any M$ crap!  That way you can't
complain about how crappy even the 3rd-party software that "runs" on it
is too!

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098      VE3TCP      <gwoods at acm.org>     <woods at robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods at planix.com>;   Secrets of the Weird <woods at weird.com>