cca@pur-phy (Charles C. Allen) (02/14/88)
I've been using the pre-release version of FullWrite for a couple of
weeks now, and would like to share some observations.
First, a bug: Create a horizontal line with the Picture editor. Go to
the "Object Style..." dialog. The height will be 0.0000 whatevers
(inches in my case). Click on the OK button, and an alert will appear
complaining that "The height must be no less than 0.0139 inches". Hmm...
that's 1/72nd of an inch (the screen resolution on my monitor). Click OK
in the alert, and the height is changed to 0.0139 in. Fine. Now exit
the Picture editor, then re-enter it, select the line, choose "Object
Style...", and notice that the height is 0.0000 inches again.
Second, another bug: I've been unable to convince FW to let me enter a
negative number in the "Descend Below Baseline" box of the "Set Size..."
command of the "Picture" menu, despite what the manual says on page 162.
Third, yet another bug (found while writing this note in FullWrite): In
the "Base Styles..." (Document) dialog, I can't get the tabs chosen via
"Tabs..." to stick when I leave the dialog. They appear on the ruler in
the dialog, but when I click OK, they dissappear (the "Changing Base
Styles" dialog never appears). I have to set the tabs by hand.
Fourth, son of bug: When using Expressionist with FullWrite, a dot
appears in the upper left corner of the equation picture. I don't know
if this is a bug with Expressionist or FullWrite, since I've been unable
to duplicate it with Expressionist in other word processors, or with
pictures imported into FullWrite from other graphics programs.
Finally, not a bug, but a comment on how FullWrite deals with citations
and references. The format for such things is always chosen from a
fixed list, which I find rather surprising (as well as confining). As
an example of the problems this can cause, consider how equations are
often numbered:
a = b + c (17)
It IS possible to do this in FullWrite, but it's painful. The only
formatting choices for the contents are: Category, Category and Page,
and Page. There's no way of referring to JUST the citation number.
To do the above you have to have a category named "(". Naturally, you
can no longer insert a citation like (see equation 17), the best you
can do is [see equation (17)]. Ick.
Ah, but it gets better (worse?)! There is no way of referring to the
chapter that the citation object refers to. So it's even more painful
to number things like "equation 1.17". Again, you can sorta get around
it by having a different category for each chapter, like 1., 2., etc.,
but it's a real kludge.
The ideal solution would be to allow the user full control of the format
for things like this. For citations, you want to have access to the
Category Name, the page and chapter (heck, why not the paragraph and
line also) the referenced object occurred on, and the citation "number".
Then just insert these into an edit box along with whatever else you
want. Once it's done for citations, it's easy to do the same for
footnotes, endnotes, bibliography references, etc.
All in all, I'm very pleased with FullWrite. The only "additions" I can
think of right now that I would like to see (eventually, right now I
just want the official 1.0 release!) would be an equation editor and the
citation formatting mentioned above.
Charlie Allen cca@newton.physics.purdue.edu
cca@fnal.bitnet
..pur-ee!newton!ccamoriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (02/17/88)
In article <992@pur-phy> cca@pur-phy (Charles C. Allen) writes: >The ideal solution would be to allow the user full control of the format >for things like this. For citations, you want to have access to the >Category Name, the page and chapter (heck, why not the paragraph and >line also) the referenced object occurred on, and the citation "number". >Then just insert these into an edit box along with whatever else you >want. Once it's done for citations, it's easy to do the same for >footnotes, endnotes, bibliography references, etc. Agreed, with variations: the standard citation box they have now, with an "free-form" option that allows you to write in the citation text and a variable which expands to the number of the cited object (depends on it's classification). Variables should be expanded in the free-form box, too, and a chapter variable is also a neccessity. "Avast, ye slobs! Deploy the mizzen mast! Rotate the rubber baby buggy bumpers!" Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, hplsla, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind... <*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>