🚀 go-pugleaf

What do people feel are the advantages of WYSIWYG phototypsetting
(e.g. MacWrite, FRAMEMAKE) vs what I will call "programmed"
phototypesetting (e.g TeX, LaTeX)?

To start things off, here are my opinions, hopefully cleansed of
religious opinions.

pro WYSIWYG

- easy to learn
- hardcopy is identical to display
- immediate "results"
- easy creation/addition of pictures, images, etc.

con WYSIWYG

- difficult to implement style and formatting changes 
- the writer becomes concerned  more with the format than content
- manual labeling of page numbers, references, figures, sections, etc.
- speed - printing speed is generally limited by printer
- hardcopy is sometimes NOT identical to the display (tabs for instance)
- good ones can be very expensive (e.g. Interleaf)

pro PROGRAMMED

- worry about content - then formatting
- computer re-numbering of pages
- computer cross-referencing and numbering figures, tables, eqs, etc.
- softcopy output IS possible  (eg. texx)
- computer generated index, list of tables, figures, etc.
- speed - compilation makes printing fast (duplicates are easy)
- custom forms for common document "feel" - e.g. memo.sty in LaTeX for memos
- user does not have to align table or columns of numbers (\tabular in LaTeX)
- TeX and derivatives are public domain (or close to it)

con PROGRAMMED

- long "compile time"
- uncertain page breaks
- difficult to debug
- many hardcopies are needed to correctly format complex documents
- TeX and derivatives are public domain (or close to it)
-- 
   john c. schultz         schultz@mmm.UUCP          (612) 733-4047
           3M Center, Bldg 518-1-1, St. Paul, MN 55144-1000
  The opinions expressed herein are, as always, my own and not 3M's.

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