evan@ndcheg.UUCP (Evan Bauman) (02/15/88)
We're converting our department office word processing equipment from dedicated CPT word processors to IBM PS/2 model 30's. We've purchased one unit and another two are on order. We originally thought of using the T3 word processor, but this package requires 550K to run and this means that we cannot load the network software at the same time. Does anyone have a recommendation for another WP? We need one that will support a postscript printer, be relatively easy to learn, doesn't use as much RAM as T3 (under 350K would be nice), and work with the model 30's video (MCGA). It should be VERY easy to format complex equations with this word processor. If necessary, we can purchase a VGA card if we need EGA graphics capabilities. Some thing that would be nice to have would be WYSIWYG, and dazzling use of the color display (our secretaries love blue screens). Thanks in advance for all advice. Evan Bauman Dep't of chemical engineering University of Notre Dame ..!iuvax!ndcheg!evan
emigh@ncsugn.ncsu.edu (Ted H. Emigh) (02/18/88)
In article <369@ndcheg.UUCP> evan@ndcheg.UUCP (Evan Bauman) writes: >Does anyone have a recommendation for another WP? We need one that will >support a postscript printer, be relatively easy to learn, doesn't use >as much RAM as T3 (under 350K would be nice), and work with the model 30's >video (MCGA). It should be VERY easy to format complex equations with >this word processor. Consider EXP sold by Wadsworth Publishing Company. It is small, easy to learn, etc., but not as versatile as T3. While the display is WYSIWYG, the commands are more like TeX. -- Ted H. Emigh, Dept. Genetics and Statistics, NCSU, Raleigh, NC uucp: mcnc!ncsuvx!ncsugn!emigh internet: emigh%ncsugn.ncsu.edu BITNET: NEMIGH@TUCC @ncsuvx.ncsu.edu:emigh@ncsugn.ncsu.edu
Isaac_K_Rabinovitch@cup.portal.com (02/19/88)
evan@ndcheg.UUCP (Evan Bauman) writes:
->We're converting our department office word processing equipment from dedicated
->CPT word processors to IBM PS/2 model 30's. We've purchased one unit and
->another two are on order. We originally thought of using the T3 word
->processor, but this package requires 550K to run and this means that
->we cannot load the network software at the same time.
->Does anyone have a recommendation for another WP? We need one that will
->support a postscript printer, be relatively easy to learn, doesn't use
->as much RAM as T3 (under 350K would be nice), and work with the model 30's
->video (MCGA).
People with problems like yours will certainly want to get the Feb. 29 issue
of PC Magazine, which has summaries and capsule reviews of 55 DOS WPs.
Not without its problems (didn't answer basic questions about some programs;
and although the editors obviously tried to prevent it, some of the
capsules were colored by the I [Heart] This Program syndrome), but is still
an important document, because of all the comparisons in one place. Even
the reviews of programs you wouldn't even consider buying are worth reading,
because they'll help you understand the different approaches to WP design.
One program that the magzine made me take special note of was Note Bene,
which I had previously dismissed as an overdesigned academic WP. Features
that impressed me: up to 9 windows; ability to display the directory
tree; support of documents too big to fit on a single disk; automatically
updated bibliographies (there's an integrated "flat" daatabase),
footnotes, cross-references, section numbers and the like; simple intuitive
inteface; ability to specify format in an "abstract" way so you don't
have to redo the whole document when you use another printer or need
a different format for a different journal; and support for foreign languages,
including right-to-left languages like Hebrew (you'll need a graphics card
for that one).
Runs in 384K, said to have good printer support. Understand I'm not
actually endorsing the program, I'm merely mentioning the features useful
to the academic shop and which make me lust in my heart -- and, not
incidentally, address my qualms about WordPerfect and MS Word.
Unfortunately, I think we may have a basic problem:
->It should be VERY easy to format complex equations with
->this word processor.
PC Mag. doesn't say anything on this topic, but I get the impression
that neither Nota Bene or the other 54 support this one. Since you
probably don't consider systems that rely on non-interactive equation
description languages "easy to format," we can rule out TeX and
troff/eqn. My experience with this sort of thing under DOS is limited
(I *have* used eqn under Unix) so it's entirely possible that there's
a good program I don't know about -- but I don't think much has been
accomplished with the problem of applying the WYSIWYG concept to equation
formatting, and most of the work that has been done lives on Unix systems.
Possibly Lotus Manuscript (which PC Mag. skipped for some reason) comes
close. You have to use an equation language, but there appears
to be some immediate feedback. Unfortunately, I hear that Manuscript
is buggy, and difficult to use. Don't know what its RAM requirements are,
but I'm not optimistic.
Here's a highly imperfect solution: format your equations separately with
MathCad or some other program good at entering them, then paste them
into the document using some WP that supports embedded graphics. No wait,
you're a chemist! But perhaps you have other scientific doodling program
that will serve.
Isaac Rabinovitch
Disclaimer: Just because I think you're wrong, doesn't
mean I don't think you're a fun person!
:-)rgale@pnet01.cts.com (Ryan Gale) (02/20/88)
Isaac_K_Rabinovitch@cup.portal.com writes: >Possibly Lotus Manuscript (which PC Mag. skipped for some reason) comes >close. You have to use an equation language, but there appears >to be some immediate feedback. Unfortunately, I hear that Manuscript >is buggy, and difficult to use. Don't know what its RAM requirements are, >but I'm not optimistic. No, no immediate feedback. I've never used eqn in Unix, but suspect that Manuscript's equation language is comparable, if not identical [it's even invoked by the keyword "\eqn ..."]. In order to see the results, you must either print it out or "preview" it -- i.e., print to the screen. This requires (a) saving the file, (b) loading the print formatting program, (c) reading in the file, (d) specifying the print parameters, and (e) printing/ previewing the work. This can take a significant amount of time if you're dealing with a large file. RAM requirements: "At least 512K RAM (640K is recommended)." Fortunately, it supports EMS, which I highly recommend. I've not run into any bugs. As for its difficulty, well... I'd rather just say that it's _different_. Since it allows me to do things that I'd never even consider doing with any other word processor, I don't have the "auto- matic reflexes" established yet to intuitively recognize situations where a specific Manuscript capability could/should be used. I think that a better description would be "ponderous". Don't misunderstand -- I rather like the package, and it's my word processor of choice for any document requiring numbered paragraphs. But I definitely see it as a specialized tool. Lotus offers a demo version for $10. This is the full Manuscript editor, but doesn't include the spelling checker or any printer drivers. You can use the 'preview' feature to get an idea as to how things will look in print, but this may or may not be satisfactory. Still, it's well worth looking into. --- Ryan Gale UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, nosc}!crash!pnet01!rgale ARPA: crash!pnet01!rgale@nosc.mil INET: rgale@pnet01.CTS.COM
murphy@pur-phy (William J. Murphy) (02/21/88)
Isaac Rabinovitch wrote in article 13241
>since you want interactive equation handling you can rule out TeX and troff
(my paraphrase)^^^
Not only that, but the use of TeX on a micro with 640K and 20 MB hard
disk is VERY impractical for LONG publications. A member of our research
group, wrote his Preliminary exam, approx. 35 pages, on his micro and managed
to get a very impressive product. However, when working on his Thesis, forget
it. You run out of space keeping all of the necessary tables and cross
referencing information.
W.Murphy
Physics Dept.
Purdue Univ.
murphy@newton.physics.purdue.edukevinc@auvax.UUCP (Kevin Barry Crocker) (02/29/88)
In article <3302@cup.portal.com>, Isaac_K_Rabinovitch@cup.portal.com writes: > evan@ndcheg.UUCP (Evan Bauman) writes: > ->We're converting our department office word processing equipment from dedicated > ->CPT word processors to IBM PS/2 model 30's. We've purchased one unit and > ->another two are on order. We originally thought of using the T3 word > ->processor, but this package requires 550K to run and this means that > ->we cannot load the network software at the same time. > > ->Does anyone have a recommendation for another WP? We need one that will > ->support a postscript printer, be relatively easy to learn, doesn't use > ->as much RAM as T3 (under 350K would be nice), and work with the model 30's > ->video (MCGA). > > Possibly Lotus Manuscript (which PC Mag. skipped for some reason) comes > close. You have to use an equation language, but there appears > to be some immediate feedback. Unfortunately, I hear that Manuscript > is buggy, and difficult to use. Don't know what its RAM requirements are, > but I'm not optimistic. > We've been using Manuscript for almost two years here at Athabasca University. As far as I know it is not buggy at all. I'm running a Zenith 241 AT with an Aboveboard 286 and Zenith's 405 extended memory board on top of the 640 on the motherboard an OSI 40 Mb disk and an ATI graphics board. Everything seems to work just fine. I do occassionally get some runtime errors but I have NEVER hung. Usually the problem ends up being something really stupid that is my own fault. It is really quite easy to set up equations especially those that you may use quite often. All you do is use alpha representations for each critical term and then you can even preview it on the WYSIWYG previewer screen. Just to give you an example: let's suppose that you wanted to setup a general integral then you would type in: \equation "int super infinity sub A f(t) dt"\ inpreview mode it would show up perfect. However, it does not do chemical pictures, but it will do chemical equations - it has all (?) the math functions that I think anyone would want. Here's a list of some of the things it can do: Cosine, Cosecant, Hyperbolic cosine, cotangent, exponent, greatest common denominator, inferior, limit, limit inferior, limit superior, natural log, logarithm, maximum, minimum, modulo, secant, sine, hyperbolic sine, superior, tangent, hyperbolic tangent, all lower and upper greek letters, diacritical marks (dot, doubledot, hat, tilde, vector, dyad, bar, underline), binary operators (plus, minus, plus or minus, minus or plus, division, multiplication, circle-plus, circle-minus, circle-multiply, circle-divide), relational operators ( equal, not equal, congruent, approx. equal, dot equal, identical, not identical, greater greter than or equal to, much greater, less, less than or equal to, much less, subset, proper subset, superset, proper superset, belongs to , not belong to, such that, and, or, exclusive or, not, implies, equivalent, relation), pointers ( up, down, left, right, bi-arrow, double-up, double-down, double-left, double-right, double-bi-arrow), grouping symbols ( parenthesis, brackets, braces, vertical, floor, ceiling, angle), large operators (sum, integral,surface integral, product, union, intersection, meet, join, root or radical, there exists, for all), nabla, aleph, infinity, prime, real, imaginary, proportional, partial, empty set, angle, degree, elipsis, superscript, subscript, below, above, equation alignment, vertical stacking (a-la matrix etc), matricies, over, custom equation spacing, ......... These are not all. Bye the way I understand that Manuscript Version 2.0 will be out shortly. As an end note Since I am in Finance I have found this product superb. It allows me to incorporate all the equations in Finance in my documents very easily - in fact for those that are used often I put them in separate files and just include them at print time. As a Last peice of information. Issac, I have been trying to send you messages for over six months now and I just can't get through. I think the underscores in your authorplaceholder are screwing up my mailer. Is it possible for us to find some other way to talk to each other. ihnp4!alberta!auvax!kevinc (Kevin Crocker Athabasca University) Do our employers have opinions or is that what we get paid for!