home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications
- Path: sparky!uunet!munnari.oz.au!trlluna!titan!tmp_ip_003!soh
- From: soh@tmp_ip_003.trl.OZ.AU (Soh Kam Hung)
- Subject: SUMMARY - Good, cheap text processors
- Message-ID: <1992Sep14.001002.26647@trl.oz.au>
- Keywords: summary
- Sender: root@trl.oz.au (System PRIVILEGED Account)
- Organization: Telecom Research Labs, Melbourne, Australia
- Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 00:10:02 GMT
- Lines: 52
-
- I made an enquiry regarding text processors for manuscripts several
- months ago. Here is a list of requirements:
-
- 1. Automatic word wrap / fill. (The basic emacs fill isn't sufficient
- though. See below.)
- 2. Multiple line spacing on screen and in print.
- 3. Basic printer support for proof-reading.
- 4. Underlining on screen. Bold and italics are nice extras.
- 5. Mouse support for marking, blocking, cut, copy and paste.
- 6. Basic search and replace.
- 7. Multitasks properly and uses ARexx (what else for an Amiga?).
- 8. Some documentation on the output format so that I can automatically
- translate files to [La]TeX.
-
- Below is a summary of replies I received:
-
- AZ 1.50 - Pretty good text editor. Good even for binary files.
- However, more suitable for source code editing than writing
- manuscripts.
-
- GnuEmacs - Can't reformat whole paragraphs if characters are not
- inserted at the rightmost (fill-column) margin. However, I'm familiar
- with it, and can ask other users on the net for help.
-
- QED - Plenty of features and AReXX. Haven't had time to try it yet.
-
- TPP - Graphical TeX front-end. Clever, but not compatible with enough
- with TeX and seems to lack wordwrapping feature.
-
- An intriguing idea from Hugh Gamble:
- - Make a font with a big interline space to simulate double spacing.
-
- DECISION
-
- Stick with GnuEmacs for the moment. I might look at full blown word
- processors such as Prowrite or Excellence! if I can't train GnuEmacs in
- the next couple of months.
-
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
-
- Many thanks to the following people for sending their replies:
-
- hugh@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca (Hugh D. Gamble)
- w_kueting@tron.gun.de (Wolfgang Kueting)
- Tom Bruhns <tomb@lsid.hp.com>
- 26971883@WSUVM1.CSC.WSU.EDU
-
- Regards,
-
- ---
- Soh Kam Hung, Network Management Research, | h.soh@trl.oz.au
- TRL, POB 249 Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia | +61 3 253 6638
-