psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (01/22/90)
In article <481@iceman.jcu.oz>, ccmlh@iceman.jcu.oz (Michael L Hope) passes on a request for "a program for word processors that would offer these different formats as options from which the students could select." (He apologizes that the person who sent him the request is unavailable for specifics. I assume, Michael, that you want better advice than, "Ask the guy what he *really wants.") Since Michael posted to both comp.sys.mac and comp.sys.ibm.pc (as well as some Australia-only groups), one consideration might be recommending (not requiring, I hope!) a single package that runs on both platforms. Microsoft Word runs under MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, OS/2 (but there's no Presentation Manager version yet), and the Macintosh. It has "style sheets", which package information about the look of a document. One way of handling the request might be to develop a set of MS-Word style sheets that reflect some thesis style guide. (Other cross-platform products include Word Perfect, which I think maybe has style sheets, and any of the good implementations of Donald Knuth's TeX plus Lesley Lamport's LaTeX, which isn't WYSIWYG.) All of these are available for the UNIX(R) operating system (at least for 386-based versions). There's a PC-based word processing package based on a formatter designed for theses and other complex documents. Scribe spawned Mince and Scribble, which spawned Final Word, which was bought by Borland, enhanced, and released as Sprint. All of these have "environments", which are another way of pre-defining the look of a document. I think there's a brand-new 386 UNIX-based release of this one, too. A final word: scholars (including grad students writing theses) have enough to do. Finding some way to make their word processing easier is a laudable goal. But don't force them to use certain software, or a certain piece of hardware, for their work. And don't bother looking for a word processing package that will *force* the writers to follow a certain style; there's no such animal. > Michael Hope, ccmlh@iceman.jcu.oz Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories att!pegasus!psrc, psrc@pegasus.att.com, AT&T Mail !psrchisholm I'm not speaking for the company, I'm just speaking my mind. UNIX(R) is a registered trademark of AT&T.