--- Begin Message ---
- To: texd@tug.org
- Subject: WYSIWYG TeX: a request to TeX configurators and distributors
- From: Jonathan Fine <jfine@active-tex.demon.co.uk>
- Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 10:39:14 +0000
- Message-id: <3C9320D2.93C82784@active-tex.demon.co.uk>
In an interview published in a journal of DMV (the German
Mathematical Society), Leslie Lamport was asked:
> Why is there no high/same-quality WYSIWYG system [for
> mathematical typesetting] available?
Lamport replied:
> The entrance barrier is too high. To have any chance of
> success, a system would have to do everything that TeX does.
> That makes it too much work for any individual. A company
> like Microsoft could do it; I presume they don't because
> the market is too small.
My opinion is that TeX exactly as it is today can be used
as the typesetting engine of a WYSIWYG mathematical word
processor, provided the output dvi stream is not buffered.
Provide suitable interface code is provided, this will make
TeX available as a callable function, converting text to
dvi at high speed (and with high quality). It will not be
perfect, but it will be more than good enough (and the
typesetting will be far better than Microsoft's finest).
This is not to say that considerable developer effort is not
required, particularly in the areas of user interface, display
and document model. And also TeX macros. However, I believe
that a proof-of-concept prototype could be produced in about
5,000 lines of new code.
When web2c TeX is built with --enable-ipc as a configuration
option, the command line switch -ipc turns off buffering
of dvi output. I hope that in future all configurators and
distributors of TeX will --enable-ipc when they build TeX.
This simple and harmless one-line change will help open the
door to WYSIWYG TeX.
TeXpad, a simple demonstration of the principles involved,
is available at
http://www.activetex.org
Further applications will appear at this site, from time to
time.
Jonathan Fine
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