Re: Emacs as word processor

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

John Yates <address@hidden> writes:

> On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 4:38 PM, Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>
>     I see no reason for these features to be connected to a style.
>      They
>     can easily be separate; keeping them separate will make it easier
>     for
>     users to specify arbitrary combinations of them.
>
>
> Is that really the goal?
>
> When I started programming 45 years ago I wrote in the only language
> available for system programming: assembler.  I hand laid out every
> looping construct.  I hand allocated every register.  I was entirely
> on my own to identify and enforce all necessary conventions.  Using a
> high level language deprives me of some of the fine control I once
> had.  In exchange though I can contemplate and even complete
> radically larger designs.  I am extremely grateful for a limited
> vocabulary of loops, for entirely automatic register allocation and
> for languages that enforce strong typing.
>
> I am unmoved by the prospect of being able to specify entirely
> arbitrary combinations of all formatting elements at any and every
> point in my documents.


Well, of course, a well structured document can be laid out
automatically and produce quite readable a document.  

However, it seems to me that we encounter frequently enough local
layout or typographical problems that require manual intervention.  So I
wouldn't discard the possibility of editing locally the style, only
applicable on a single character, word, paragraph, whatever the
structural elements that need to be tuned.

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__
http://www.informatimago.com/