On Thu, 21 Aug 2008, Jules Richardson wrote: I sold my shrink-wrapped copies of "Electric Pencil for PC". I hardly ever use any of the fancy features of word processing programs, except for using some fonts in sign-making, etc. Notepad seems quite adequate for any routine text editing. I used Windows 3.10 "WRITE" for my PhD written exams. I was the first student of the UC Information school to use a word processor for them. "Answer me, publicly, 'Am I being graded on my handwriting, or on my knowledge?'" -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 2:28 PM, Eric J Korpela <korpela at ssl.berkeley.edu> wrote: LaTeX? Weaklings ;) Real Programmers use troff. John -- Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

From: "Eric J Korpela" <korpela at ssl.berkeley.edu> Same here, and from a very similar timeframe. ObClassic: before that I used troff quite a bit. I've honestly never understood the sense that it's somehow a problem that you don't see the visual results of the layout as you type. Part of it is that I find anything changing on the screen other than the characters I type to be very distracting. The other part is that with the application of just a little of my brain I can know what it will look like close enough that anything that matters while I'm typing is known. And that doesn't begin to address the quality of the results. I've been ruined by reading Knuth's stuff on typesetting. I can't even look at my old troff results without cringing. Word processor output makes me feel physically ill sometimes. On the other hand, those times I've been forced to use a word processing or similar WYSIATI (what you see is all there is) system have been pretty painful. When learning a certain technique in something like troff or TeX, I get a sense of intellectual benefit; I feel connected to people of great intellect through the personality and spirit of their results. When I use word processors (even though the intellect of their creators may also be great), I don't feel that sense of intellectual growth. I just feel like I've memorized one more thing that didn't really teach me anything. I often hear issues like this discussed with the term "user friendly" applied. But that term has always bothered me. The presumption is that it is easy to use in some sense. But there is a major difference between easy to learn and easy to control. I find the two rarely go together. And when I'm writing, I want the control, not the ease of learning. I've used TeX/LaTeX for everything from letters to resumes to papers to books, and I plan to use TeX/LaTeX for the rest of my time on the planet. Hopefully, there won't be too many situations where I have to take a detour to something else. BLS

Fred Cisin wrote:

On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 06:04:17PM -0700, Eric J Korpela wrote: Fun page, though I see a few languages missing that I happen to use on a regular (or irregular) basis. -ethan -- Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 22-Aug-2008 at 02:30 Z South Pole Station PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -77.3 F (-60.7 C) Windchill -118.7 F (-83.7 C) APO AP 96598 Wind 13.3 kts Grid 31 Barometer 667.0 mb (11122 ft) Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html

Gordon JC Pearce wrote: During much of my CS degree, I submitted my code handwritten and my papers in plaintext. Peace... Sridhar

On Thu, 21 Aug 2008, Jules Richardson wrote: still optiional there, but now recommended. One of my committee said that it was great to have "legible content, with nothing out of order, and no circles, arrows, corrections and editing marks"