🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <731@othervax.UUCP> ray@othervax.UUCP (Raymond D. Dunn) writes:

>It *IS* by definition possible to implement hyphenation solely by
>dictionary.  If the dictionary is large enough, the assumption that a
>word is non-hyphenable if it does not appear there is perfectly
>acceptable.  As has already been pointed out in previous articles, a
>dictionary can easily be structured to handle all the "peculiars",
>like hyphenation also causing a word to change its spelling (this was
>news to me).

Oh really.  What then, pray tell, would your dictionary entry for the word
"record" contain?  When used as a verb ("to record the data") it should be
"re-cord", but when used as a noun ("give me the record") it should be
"rec-ord" (assuming one hyphenates at syllables, anyway)...

Oh, I guess you'd leave that word out...  :-)

>WYSIWYG systems (with the associated demise of much of the graphic
>arts industry) are becoming increasingly practical and popular, from
>Interleave to the good old "Mac".  The drop in price of both quality
>laser printers, RAM, and the obvious need to manipulate text and
>graphics together (both pictures and line drawings), can only speed
>up this trend.

WYSIWYG systems have their proponents and their uses.  They are VERY good
for novice users, and given the way this field is growing I should think
that "novice users" are going to be the MAJORITY of users until the entire
society is computer literate.  (This much like "automobile literate" was
the thing to be when I was a teenager - something 19 year old males can be
macho about...)

However, there are times when the WYSIWYG paradigm breaks down badly.  As
a somewhat strained analogy, a strict WYSIWYG system might have you use a
mouse to pick out letters from a menu, rather than using a conventional
keyboard.  This would be easier for the "novice user" than learning to type,
but would ultimitely limit data-entry rates to values far below those
attainable by a practiced keyboard operator...

Admittedly a strained example, but take a look around for such pathological
cases the next time you study a WYSIWYG system...

-- 
Ben Cranston  ...{seismo!umcp-cs,ihnp4!rlgvax}!cvl!umd5!zben  zben@umd2.umd.edu