Favourite text based word processing software

[Ian S. King]

On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 10:20 AM, B Degnan <billdeg at buzz1.com> wrote:

>
> > Hello group
>
> > I'm toying with the idea of writing a simple word processing package
> along
> the lines of Wordstar for my Retrochallenge 2015/01 entry.
>
> <snip> > So a little more than a text-editor but only enough to support
> simple
> formatting and styles (bold, italic, underline for example).
> >
> > Ideally I'd like to implement a clean, logical design without many
> 'bells
> and whistles' concentrating on the core functionality.
>
> Mark,
>

[snip]


> As far as formatting to the printer goes, I suggest you include the
> capacity to enter printer codes manually so that you can use most any type
> of printer that accepts them.  I remember inserting codes into programs
> that were used for a specific printer that way.  If you have the manual and
> given you're talking simple print capabilities you would not need to supply
> drivers.
>
> Bill
>

For low resource AND cognitive overhead, how about using either LaTeX or
HTML tagging, which could then be interpreted in a simple mapping table for
a given printer?  By not implementing all of the bells and whistles of
either syntax, one could create something that's lightweight and
sufficiently expressive.

-- 
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS
Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School
University of Washington

An optimist sees a glass half full. A pessimist sees it half empty. An
engineer sees it twice as large as it needs to be.