[mdlug] [OT] Perspective

[A. Kalten]

Yes,

The whole idea behind the modern WYSIWYG interface is to obviate the
need for any understanding of digital concepts.  A person without
training or education in computer principles should be able to sit
down and immediately compose worthwhile documents on a word processor
by relying on only the basic typewriter analogy.  This is what some
would call the "empowerment" of the ordinary person through the seeming
magic of advanced interfaces. 

But such a lack of understanding easily causes problems outside
of the carefully controlled areas.  Most computer users do not even
understand the concept of a carriage return character.  When these
people compose email, for example, they rely on the default word
wrapping feature to format their messages.  The recipient, however,
often will see a ridiculously long and unformatted string of text
that is devoid of carriage returns.  When dealing with pure text,
the invisible  carriage return (or line feed in the case of UNIX)
is absolutely essential, but it remains totally beyond the grasp
of the uninitiated. 

The effects of a lack of basic computer knowledge show up everywhere.
I received an email recently which included a one-page MS Word file.
The size of the attachment was nearly ONE MEGABYTE.  The sender
apparently was not aware of the fact that MS Word will embed font
information if non-standard fonts are utilized, and this document
contained a strange font.  It is simply not proper behavior to flood
someones mailbox with a very large file, but this sender had no
knowledge of his error.

Word processing began as simple text mark up, and so it remains. Groff
and LaTex still retain the full character of a mark-up language but
the WYSIWYG word processor conceals this aspect behind the graphical
interface.  The mark-up code can still be demonstrated, however, in
both Corel WordPerfect and MS Word by setting certain internal options. 

(HTML, of course, is just another mark-up language.)

Text mark-up, also sometimes referred to as post-formatting, requires
the ability to mentally picture what the final document will look like
before it is actually produced.  Usually, this prediction is fairly
straightforward to make, but in a lot of cases surprises can ensue. The
projected image will fail to correspond exactly with the actual final
result.  The discrepancy may not always be terribly significant but it
some cases it can be disastrous.  This is one strong argument, I
believe, in favor of the WYSIWYG interface.  Although I can appreciate
the simplicity and purity of groff or LaTex, there are a lot of times
when I greatly prefer the WYSIWYG software.