🚀 go-pugleaf

>From Mishkin@YALE Tue Jun 15 02:32:07 1982
I recently had the experience of helping someone (my father) with no
knowledge of wordprocessing look at and evaluate wordprocessing systems
for a small/moderate size law office.  I saw a Wang and an IBM product.
What struck me is how crotchety they looked, what with (gasp!) "modes",
random embedded hieroglyphic symbols (end-of-line, tabs) and as-you-go
page breaks (which conveniently you can make an automatic post-pass
to get to in reasonable places).  Are they all really this bad?  None
of the company representatives seemed to understand the concept of
"document compiler" (e.g. Scribe, Runoff) and raw text and finished
output.  Is this fairly pitiful "what you see is what you get" style
really all there is?  Are we-all using editors that poor secretaries
could never use (don't tell me about how your department secretaries
use zippy editor X because; they also have zippy hacker Y always near
by)?  Do these commercial systems have advantages I just didn't
recognize?
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