Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 11:03:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Brett Taylor <brett@peloton.runet.edu> To: J McKitrick <jcm@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> Cc: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: WYSIWYG word processor needed Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9910261049141.629-100000@peloton.runet.edu> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.02A.9910261532040.81010-100000@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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Hi, On Tue, 26 Oct 1999, J McKitrick wrote: > The only problem with Non-GUI wp's is trying to get a WYSIWYG view of > the document. But of course, this means large appps and more bugs. > On the other hand, I have no experience with typesetting, but i have > no desire to go back to the old style of imbedded invisible control > codes to format text. > Is there a good choice that falls somewhere in between? This depends on your point of view. I do all, and I mean all, of my writing in LaTeX. I use the teTeX port (/usr/ports/print/teTeX). Recently included in the teTeX port is pdflatex, which will take your LaTeX text file and convert it to PDF for you. This has been a major boon to me for posting homework/exam solutions for the classes I teach as it's essentially impossible to write mathematical content well/easily in HTML. Pros for LaTeX: - it's a plain text file and can be easily read even before processing, and can be created on any old text editor - since it's plain text, mailing it to others is simple (no messy Word or other application attachments) - supports Postscript and Embedded Postscript images and overall Postscript output (for nice printing) - can output file to PCL language (for non-PS Hewlett-Packard printers) - I have an old HP LJ2p that works fine - since it's really a typesetting program you can define the layout to be EXACTLY what you want (how hard this is depends on what you want, but whatever layout you want is almost certainly possible) - you can use xdvi (comes w/ teTeX) to view the dvi files or ghostscript/ghostview/gv to view the Postscript output - even w/ gv I am almost 100% positive that it's smaller than WordPerfect or StarOffice or AbiWord - many packages/templates (for creating slides, HTML, foreign characters, special math characters, letters, PDF) are included Cons: - learning curve (you need to know the basics of what you're trying to do - if you know HTML/SGML it won't be a difficult transition) - finding a good book; no one I know who uses LaTeX likes the same book - I can think of 6 people off the top of my head and not one of us likes the same reference book Brett ***************************************************** Dr. Brett Taylor brett@peloton.runet.edu * Dept of Chem and Physics * Curie 39A (540) 831-6147 * Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics * Walker 234 (540) 831-5410 * ***************************************************** To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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