Re: Text processor

[Marco Fonseca <mfonseca yorku ca>]

jason@whizzird.net wrote:
> 
> On 19-Jun-99 Robin Miller scribbled:
> > I'm not trying to start a flame war here, so I won't get
> > into point-by-point rebuttals. Let's just all agree that vi
> > is great, emacs is wonderful, and that mouse movement is not
> > efficient.
> >
> > I feel like someone who needs a car and has been told that
> > what they really need is truck. But being a pig-headed,
> > non-programming person, I'm still going to opt for the car.
> >
> > Trying to alter the users to fit the tools never works, even
> > though it's a lot easier on the tool-makers than designing
> > tools to fit the users. :)
> 
> good point. but remember linux is young. it was developed by computer-geeks
> (used with great respect) for their own needs: mostly programming, some mail or
> research paper writing (ala TeX). it's just beginning to reach the mainstream.
> soon it will have those things, and if you can't live without them suffer
> through windoze or macOS for a little while longer.
> 
> >
> > Right now, I repeat, there is not a single decent text/HTML
> > writing program for Linux.
> 
> exactly what do you mean by "text/HTML writing"?
> to me (and probably most on this list) text means a simple ascii file. no fonts
> or formatting (other than inserting spaces). and there are _loads_ of these for
> linux.
> as for HTML, it's just plain text, like all other computer languages, that
> gets interpreted by a program like netscape or a compiler. are you talking about
> something like front-page? i don't think that anything like that exists for
> linux--thankfully. such programs put an extra level between the developer and
> his code, making it harder to maintain all functionality. and since the code
> generation they use isn't anywhere near as smart as humans, they tend to add
> redundancy and bloat.
> >
> > -- Robin Miller
> > Editor and Columnist
> >
> >
> > --
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> 
> ----------------------------------
> E-Mail: jason@whizzird.net
> Date: 19-Jun-99
> Time: 14:41:50
> gtkICQ: 41540388
> 
> Linux Power!
> You will be de-assimilated.
> ----------------------------------
> 
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I've been following Robin's messages (from the original post through all
the replies and counter-replies) and, like him, I wish there were
something for Linux as powerful as Word/FrontPage for Windows.

Sure, in the case of FrontPage, it may seem like it "adds another layer"
between the developer and "his" code, but for end-users like some of us,
it's bloody great. Besides, if you take a good look at the versions from
FrontPage 97 to 2000, you can also edit and re-edit the actual HTML code
as much as you like and you will still have the graphical interface I,
personally, cannot do without. Or you can kiss it goodbye if you don't
like it and prefer the keyboard and long hours of arduous,
coffee-driven, HTML-tagging hours.

Robin is, I think, absolutely right: there simply is nothing in the
Linux world that can be called a user-friendly text editor actually
usable by "writers", not programmers. Nor emacs or xemacs, gnomepad+,
etc. The best stuff I've bben able to find comes from the KDE team.
Sorry to say it. And I say this because, after six months of looking for
something I can continue writing my PhD dissertation on under Linux, I
just can't find it. KOffice looks pretty promising, but who knows when
it's going to come out. On the other hand, StarOffice's font rendering
engine really sucks, unless you do relatively simple documents. But just
try loading a 50-100 page (only one chapter of my diss!!!) into it, and
you'll see what happens.

And when what you do is write, i.e. academic articles, professional
journalism, poetry, etc., you do need to see font styles, sizes, even
colours if you do -like I do- multiple revisions on the same document;
you need to maintain a tight control on the number of words (accurate
word-counting is a must), pages, revisions (1, 2, 3 and who wrote them,
when, where), etc. Nothing like this in Linux, not yet anyhow. 

As for FrontPage, I can load any Word/WordPerfect document into it, any
lenght, and it will convert it into HTML immediately and without
problems keeping every single format i made in the original
wordprocessing program.

I wish, with Robin, there was something like that in Linux and I think
that the programming end of the Linux community doesn't seem to get what
the needs of the user end of this community are. Ok, not always.

Marco Fonseca