*BSD News Article 66604


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From: peter@nmti.com (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Command languages versus GUIs.
Date: 23 Apr 1996 15:25:18 GMT
Organization: Network/development platform support, NMTI
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Message-ID: <4lisou$2kf@web.nmti.com>
References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> <4lgo70$t3r@masala.cc.uh.edu> <4lgv09$3a5@web.nmti.com> <4lhfcf$s8m@masala.cc.uh.edu>
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.misc:801 comp.os.linux.advocacy:46648

In article <4lhfcf$s8m@masala.cc.uh.edu>, Woody Jin <wjin@cs.uh.edu> wrote:
> The beauty lies in that normally WYSIWYG is enough.  You need such
> macro programming (most macro packages are already available) only when
> you are in odd circumstances.

Right... BUT the original threads that got me into this discussion were
claiming that there was some fundamental conflict between CLIs and GUIs,
and that GUIs let you avoid having to deal with a CLI at all. That's
just not true. The user interface, and the underlying tools, are separate
issues.

The problems I have with Word come in two parts:

	1. Using the WYSIWYG interface doesn't help you learn about the
	   underlying implementation. So rather than a moderately steep
	   learning curve that provides you with more and more capabilities
	   as you go along, you have a shallow curve that suddenly hits
	   a brick wall when you need more capability... and as you approach
	   that asymptote the amount of macdinking goes through the roof.

	   This can be avoided without abandoning the WYSIWYG approach, by
	   thinning the layers of cotton between the underlying markup
	   language and the user interface. Word Perfect does that to some
	   extent (you can edit with the codes show simultaneously with the
	   WYSIWYG interface), but it's got problems in the glue that makes
	   this, ah, unpleasant for the novice (mainly it doesn't merge
	   markup very well, so yu get things like (pseudo-sgml):

		<italic><roman>test<italic><roman>

	   after you select a section of italic text and click on "R".

	2. Once you've become used to using style sheets, the WYSIWYG
	   interface isn't very attractive any more. And you can't get
	   rid of it. Like... I don't *care* that level 2 headings are
	   curently in helvetica-bold-condensed. I'll probably change
	   that after I've had a chance to look over the first draft.

	   Does anyone even do multiple drafts any more?

-- 
Peter da Silva    (NIC: PJD2)      `-_-'             1601 Industrial Boulevard
Bailey Network Management           'U`             Sugar Land, TX  77487-5013
+1 713 274 5180         "Har du kramat din varg idag?"                     USA
Bailey pays for my technical expertise.        My opinions probably scare them