The Unix/Free Software world is already *increadibly* strong in the
non-WYSIWYG mode. Markup languages designed to be used that way have very
different design criteria than those intended to be used as the internal
file format of a WYSIWYG editor. It might be a nice "Bells and whistles"
feature to add to AbiWord, but if I want to edit the XML, I'm most likely
just gonna use emacs (or equivalent). If I want a fast preview, all I
have to do is have emacs and AbiWord open at the same time, and do
"File:Open" after every save in emacs.
What I want from a word processor (as opposed to a text editor) is a
rational internal file format (for the sake of code cleanliness and reuse,
import/export libraries, etc), good layout, so I don't have to tweak the
source by hand, and *really* good import export abilities so I can deal
with word processed docs from all the weird stuff out there (ie. MSWord).
If I want an increadably good typesetting system I'll use LaTeX.
interested in all thoughts,
-emile
On Tue, 14 Sep 1999, Tom Ryan wrote:
> Alex,
>
> > On a more mundane level, I think that the option to 'view source' is
> > very helpful is cleaning up bits where WYSIWYG can go wrong.
>
> I agree with you 100% on this one. Along the same lines, I would
> really like the option to edit my document in the mono-spaced text
> format/background of my choice, and then drop into WYSIWYG
> mode when I am ready to format it. I really miss my old
> WordPerfect for DOS since it had reveal codes/source, text
> content entry and graphics preview (although it would be nice to be
> able to edit in that mode too).
>
> I remember hearing about a study a long time ago during the
> PC/Mac wars, where they analysed the content of term papers
> from students using WYSIWYG word processors on the Mac vs.
> text mode on the PC. The papers that were written using text mode
> on the PC were better written and were at a higher grade level than
> those written on a WYSIWYG word processor. The report
> concluded that word processing in text mode during the primary
> content creation phase enables the writer to focus more on the
> quality of the writing instead of what it will look like on the page.
>
> All this is from recollections from probably 10 years ago, so some
> of my facts may be inaccurate. I still agree with the conclusion
> though.
>
> Any chance for a text only "content creation" mode and view
> source/reveal codes in AbiWord? I'd buy a whole bunch of copies if
> it had that feature. :)
>
> Regards,
>
> Tom Ryan
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