Re: Text processor

[Robin Miller <roblimo home com>]

Oy! I seem to have started a (rather gentle) flame war where
I had no intention of doing anything of the sort. Please,
everyone, accept my apology. 

The point I originally wanted to make is that it would be a
*good thing* for Gnome to incorporate a capable text editor
based on the needs of us poor souls who pound out copy all
day to fill Web and print pages. 

I am a staunch Linux advocate and Linux user. But my
(admittedly tiny) brain is already taken up by so many tasks
that I have desire to load it up any more. Sure, I like to
play with computers and do all the work on my limousine
(http://way.nu/limo) myself, but I have many finacial
obligations to meet, including child support and lot rent
payments for my humble house trailer in the woods of
Maryland. I best meet these obligations by going with my
strengths: writing coherent paragraphs with most of the
words in them spelled right and driving bigwigs around the
Baltimore/Washington area smoothly without getting lost.

I am a typical, overworked, overweight, overpressured
American. When I sit down at my computer to write something,
I want to use the best, easiest, most intuitive tools I can
find. When I work on my limousine myself (as I do all too
often), I don't use ViceGrips instead of a socket when a
socket would be a better choice. (If you've ever tried to
change the spark plugs on a 5 L SHO Ford V-8 with ViceGrips
you know what I mean!) 

People like me may or may not have the ability to modify
software tools to perform tasks that thay weren't originally
desisged to do. We rely on the people who create those tools
to take our needs and desires (which may not make sense to
programmers) into account when they do their work, just as
auto mechanics rely on Snap-On, Craftsman, and other tool
manufacturers to proved tools that fill their needs, instead
of listening to spiels from tool manufacturers about how
Crescent wrenches will fit any size bolt or nut, so they
should be satisfied with one-size-fits-all wrenches instead
of demanding sets of box-head wrenches full of of
"specialty" tools, each one of which will only fit on one
size of bolt or nut.

I've welded up my own specialty tools. I've written scripts
that would make software do things it wasn't originally
intended to do. But this gets old. 

The GNU/Linux problem, right now, is that when a mere user
asks (begs) for a tool that fits a job, the developers
instinctively respond with reasons why existing tools are
adequate and/or with suggestions on how the user can change
to fit the tools, rather than aking the users what tools
they need.

So be it.

I tried to get a point across. Some people understood.
Others didn't.

Now I've got to go turn out some "pay copy" or my family
will starve. :)

-- Robin Miller   .