Re: TTG marketing woes

["Charles Creesy" creesy@xxxxxxxx]

> I can only assume that you don't actually use GUI software. There are good
> reasons for working in a GUI environment, not the least of which is the
> ability to do more than one thing at a time, along with the ability to
> transform textual and graphic information.
****
Oh dear, I knew I shouldn't have gotten into this, but I'll try to keep it
short. I'm not really opposed to GUI in its appropriate place. One of my
favorite programs is Fontographer (the Mac version is slightly better than
the Windows one); it lets you do marvelous things with fonts, and the GUI
is beautifully implemented. And Photoshop would be impossible without the
GUI interface. Etc., etc., etc.

What's happened is that Word Processors are now being asked to do more
than most Desktop Publishing programs could just a few years ago. Two
separate functions are getting merged, writing and formatting, styling,
fussing with the appearance of the document. Now, it's nice to have that
added functionality, and I happily switch to the graphical view before
printing out to see that everything looks right, though I would never
dream of trying to WRITE in graphics mode.

My complaint with all the Windows-based word processors, XyWrite
included, is that they do not have a true draft mode (as XyWrite 4 for DOS
and its predecessors do): big easy-to-read type, all coding revealed,
etc., the old-fashioned ascii screen. Now I'm growing old and my eyesight
is getting bad but I know productivity is enhanced even for young, well-
sighted WRITERS when they can really see what they are doing. I find
WordWin and AmiPro and the rest horribly hard to read.

My biggest wish for the next Windows version of XyWrite is that they give
you control over the screen appearance of the draft mode, font, size of
type, colors, etc. As it is, I do all of my writing in DOS and only use
the Windows version when I need to exchange data with other programs or
want to prepare a document for publication.

Does anybody want to change the subject?











--Chuck Creesy
Princeton University Press
creesy@xxxxxxxx
609-258-5745  Fax: 609-258-6305