es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) (01/17/91)
People, PLEASE think about this flame war. These programs are all capable of creating professional documents, they all have their plusses and all have their minuses. MS Word is relatively easy to use (although I find Excellence easier), very user configurable and lets you do practically anything. TeX is totally flexible, letting you do anything. It is PD and there are tons of professional fonts, including from Mr. Zapf himself. Tex is built around well-structured documents and is well supported in the Unix world. However, it is VERY difficult to get accustomed to. WordPerfect is a middle ground. It takes a little while of getting used to (you have to get used to having commands embedded in your document that can be viewed with reveal codes). Once you get used to it, it works well. The main plus is that WP has EXCELLENT customer support. There are over 20 800 numbers active during a liberal definition of business hours and a separate local number open all night. Its negative is that its handling of figures/boxes is a bit clumsy and requires getting used to. So what does this mean? Stop flaming. It's senseless. Some people will prefer one or the other and they are all right. Let's get to constructive stuff, like what are we missing and how can it best be added. -- Ethan "What a waste it is to lose one's mind, or not to have a mind... How true that is." -- Dan Quayle, of course. Our beloved Vice President. It's just too easy!