Subject: Re: Reveal codes (was Re: Zero-length Runs and show codes)
From: Randy Kramer (rhkramer@fast.net)
Date: Thu Feb 15 2001 - 06:57:26 CST
Paul,
Interesting (and good) analysis! Thanks!
(Somehow I suspect you've thought about this occasionally. ;-)
Randy Kramer
Paul Rohr wrote:
>
> To get things started, I'll argue that there are four relevant equivalence
> classes of users here:
>
> - HTML users
> - Word users
> - WordPerfect users
> - old-style SGML users
>
> In all four cases, people sometimes like to know how and why their content
> got formatted the way it did, so they can tweak it and/or clean it up.
> However, the 4 UIs solve this same problem in different (and perhaps
> idiosyncratic ways).
>
> Word users ...
> --------------
> ... have been trained to look at a bunch of various GUI indications (such as
> toolbar buttons, the style combo, status bar messages, or even property
> dialogs) to tell them what the current formatting mode is. Everything is so
> WYSIWYG that these folks never feel like they're missing anything.
>
> HTML users ...
> --------------
> ... have been trained to pull up the View Source menu and see the raw markup
> as a separate document. Once you learn a little HTML, it's usually not too
> hard to follow along and sync the two views. Some HTML editors take
> advantage of this and sync the two views (WYSIWYG and markup) automatically.
>
> WordPerfect users ...
> ---------------------
> ... have been trained to think of formatting as a consequence of mysterious
> control codes which get sprinkled among the characters of their text.
> Frequently, the only good way to get rid of unwanted codes is to open up a
> separate Reveal Codes pane and nuke them by hand.
>
> old-style SGML users ...
> ------------------------
> ... have been trained to focus primarily on the markup, and to despise
> WYSIWYG for a host of reasons. Thus, the tools they prefer have UIs which
> help manage the complexities of the kinds of markup they're dealing with.
>
> my totally biased opinion
> -------------------------
> Markup and WYSIWYG just don't mix well in the same UI.
>
> To my mind, the Reveal Codes "feature" is only needed when the rest of your
> formatting GUI is so broken that you can't fix your document without it.
> But I freely admit to being a Word user. :-)
>
> Likewise, I fall much more on the HTML and lightweight XML side of the camp,
> so heavy-duty markup-centric SGML tools aren't useful precedents for me.
>
> Thus, I like the fact that we've got a very clean WYSIWYG interface (which
> will please the Word users), plus an HTMLish file format which can be viewed
> under the hood if you really care. That gives us two alternate UIs for
> understanding what's happening with the underlying markup.
>
> While it's possible to envision and implement UI solutions in a WYSIWYG word
> processor that look like WordPerfect or SGML interfaces for displaying *and
> reliably editing* other markup, I haven't seen one I like. The words "ugly"
> and "brittle" usually come to mind. ;-)
>
> Paul,
> UI fanatic
>
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