Quote:
Originally Posted by rcentros
Okay. I'll pass your message on to the professional writers (mentioned in an earlier post). I guess they don't know what they're talking about.
BTW, have you ever used WordStar or a non-WYSIWIG word processor of any brand? Just curious.
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Yes. I started out on computers in the 80-column punch-card era, then tapes. As I thought I'd mentioned in this thread--perhaps it was another--we built our first "desktop PC," which was an 8086 (and we've built every computer I've used since then). I used (math) programs like Visi-calc, and then of course, Lotus 1-2-3. Hell, Excel didn't EXIST until '85. Before that, my first brush with word-processing, after the Selectrics, was the IBM OS/6.
I honestly don't remember how many DOS-based, non-WYSIWYG "word processing" programs I used from '73-forward, (originally on mini-computers, then desktops), nor most of their names, but I bloody well do remember when Wordperfect came along, which, in my opinion, was the best of the lot, and "should have" won the WP wars, but didn't. (Nor do I remember all the spreadsheet/math programs, either. Sorry, but I don't.) I vaguely recall Electric Pencil; Wordstar for the Epson was, I think, next up. I did use WordStar, BTW...it was okay, but it certainly wasn't Wordperfect, which was far, far superior to it, IMHO.
I used them all, pretty much, over the years. Which answers what question of yours, exactly?
I find that people who get stuck "futzing around with the formatting" are those that haven't bothered to really learn whichever program it is that they are using. We see this constantly in Word, as well as Pages--we get books that are memoirs, or what-have-you, with a gazillion images, charts, diagrams inserted in about 30 different ways, because the person never bothered to take a short tutorial in how to do it correctly. Ditto captions. Ditto
ANY type of styling AT ALL.
Considering I still see--regularly--people who get to the end of the line and hit "enter," on every single line, my level of "understanding" about people who have to "futz around with the formatting" is pretty thorough. They never bothered to learn the programs they are using, so, yes, they
struggle with worrying about how it looks, particularly if the look is relevant to the content (like blockquotes, other indented material, and the like). This is particularly true because most people never understand that "formatting" is about
STRUCTURE, far more importantly than "what it looks like."
Anyone who wants to can write in markdown, or use Textile, or use an HTML editor/text editor with tags of some kind to indicate what's what. They
choose not to. Just as they choose whether to learn the tool they are using, or not. If someone's "creative genius" requires that they not get
distracted by formatting, whatever. For all I know, someone needs to have green jelly beans in a jar next to their keyboard to ensure that their "creative processes" work correctly. That doesn't mean that I need to know about the green jelly beans, nor use that process myself, nor, for that matter, do I CARE about them and their green jelly beans.
Actually, the whole discussion is starting to feel like a water-cooler conversation after an episode of some peeping-Tom reality TV show. I'll say it again: don't care what Martin, or any other author, does, uses, doesn't use. Don't care if someone wants to entertain themselves by "sticking with" a DOS-based program. {shrug}. It's no skin off my nose. If people don't want to change, that's their business. {shrug}. Given Martin's age, good for him that he knows how to use a computer at all, but even my 95-y.o. FIL can bang along quite merrily on an upgraded, up-to-date computer with modern programs.
Hitch