🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1990Apr2.220415.1972@ee.rochester.edu> davis@ee.rochester.edu (Al Davis) writes:
>[[ numerous complaints about Publisher ]]
>Disclaimer: it has been about a year since I last tried to use it, other
>than a few patches to a someone else's document.  They may have fixed some
>of these problems since then.

A lot can change in a year.  We've had the product since it was
introduced, and its gone through a lot of changes.  Many of Al's
complaints have been addressed by subsequent revisions.  But more
important, I think are the remarks below...

Part of the problem with using an unfamiliar GUI is that it
takes the user a while to understand how it is designed -- because
odds are, the user doesn't think the same way as the designer.  Many
of my initial letters to Arbortext telling them what I thought about
their product had a much harsher tone then Al's remarks here.

Arobor text has been very responsive to user criticisms of the
package, and seems committed to constant improvements.  On the other
hand, the user interface (in the graphical and more general sense) has
changed very little.  It is really the structured philosophy of SGML
rather than the unstructured-ness of LaTeX or TeX.  It definitely
takes some getting used to -- I've seen our entire site (60 people) go
through the learning curve.  I will readily admit that there are
people who before or after using Publisher may prefer straight LaTeX
instead -- my earlier remarks were merely observations of the users at
our site.

The intent of the Publisher (by my understanding) is primarily to use
SGML for document description and TeX as a formatting engine.  They
store files in their own format.  Their "translators" produce TeX
as an intermediate, prepratory to making a DVI and then (typically) as
PS file.  

We take advantage of its ability to take straight TeX or LaTeX as
input occasionally, but we purchased it mainly as a functional desktop
publishing package, which it is.  I offered the info about Publisher
because it seemd to qualify as a GUI which produced TeX.  I don't want
to get into a flame-fest about this or other packages.

This is about to stray from the group's charter, so If anyone wants
to hear more about Publisher, or about what the current version can
do, please respond by email.  I'm still interested to hear if there
are other packages which use the TeX formatting engine?

And in case a further disclaimer is necessary, I'm just a Publisher
user too.
-- 
David Bernholdt			bernhold@qtp.ufl.edu
Quantum Theory Project		bernhold@ufpine.bitnet
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL  32611		904/392 6365