[H-GEN] Text Processor Tool

James Mills prologic at shortcircuit.net.au
Fri Jul 30 20:51:43 EDT 2004


On Sat, Jul 31, 2004 at 10:19:03AM +1000, Greg Black wrote:
> > Has anyone come across an application with any or similar features to
> > the following:
> > 
> > * XML based source files
> > * Document classes (Article, Book, CV, etc... similar to LyX)
> > * Tree-Like editing (open/close 'ing of edited sections) much the same
> >   way as the Debian package 'woody'.
> > * Export to: HTML, PDF, PostScript, DVI ...
> > * vi-like key bindings or something configurable or easy to use
> > -> * NCurses-based or Terminal-based app
> 
> OpenOffice does all this except for the final item.

*nods* I haved in the past used various Text Editors, Word Processing
(yes including Microsoft Office), however the best and most productive
that I have found to use is in fact LyX a LaTeX front-end. LyX is a
marvelous tool for producing professional documents which is what I do
some of the time doing Software Engineering at uni.

Haveing said that though...

> > For the few that do know me, I am Visually Impaired and my sight has
> > gotten worse and now heavily rely on Text-based software since it's the
> > easiest to read without having to blow the font up too large reducing
> > the ammount you can see and thus reducing my efficiency to work.
> 
> I don't have your visual problem, so I may be misunderstanding
> something here -- but it seems to me that I can do better with a
> graphics display than with a text display when it comes to
> reading stuff on screen.  My eyesight is not brilliant, partly
> due to genetics and partly to age; so many text displays (both
> on screen and on paper) leave me wanting to inflict painful
> attitude readjustment on the perpetrators, but I find that I can
> set suitable font sizes in graphics applications that meet my
> needs.  I wonder if this is something that you could explore
> further?  Bear in mind that bad graphics fonts (of which there
> are millions) are really awful; good fonts (which are much
> rarer, but do exist) can be great.
> 
> I don't know if this is something that you've already explored
> extensively; if so, sorry for wasting electrons.

Okay several things here (And no, I do wish for help and am certainly
not big-noting myself, please don't think so... I certainly got rapped
for my last thread)

The type of condition I have means that I have no Central Vision and
only have Peripheral Vision left that I can actually make use of.
However objects, and anything I look at doesn't converge well with
Peripheral Vision as someone who has studied the human eye or biology
will know. The condition is called Leber's DIsease for anyone who's
interested.

I therefore use a 17" LCD because of the cystal clear display it can
provide vs. a CRT monitor of the same size or larger. My LCD though
these days I have found is not quite big enough, so one day I may be
looking at Apple's new 23", 25" and 30" LCDs!

I do use Larger Fonts on my Terminals, and I do use X-Windows, so
obviously I am using a GUI of some sort (Window Maker). I guess the main
problem with a lot of GUI's is the Font, and in some applications I have
found you can't change the Font Face or even Size! :( X-Chat which I use
regularly though does allow you to change both the Face and Size of the
font.

But, I find myself using more and more, text or terminal based
application for several reaons: The font is easier to read (and I use an
x-term with the fonts fairly large but not too large so I still can read
a fair bit on my 17" LCD), I have learnt how to use powerfull tools like
abook, mutt, vim, hnb, Python, Bash to my advantage that a mouse+gui
based environment can't always offer. I use the keyboard more than I do
the mouse.

The note about Large Fonts but not too large, is one of the biggest
problems I face. If you make the Font too large, you can't see as much
of what you're trying to do on the screen. You'd need a bigger screen.
If you make them too small, you can't read them and have to use a
software magnifier or handl-held pysical one...

I already mentioned why I don't use OpenOffice as my word processing
tool. Just for the shear fact that there's too many menu's and buttons
makes it hard.... LyX vs. OpenOffice, LyX is easier to use and is more
productive for me.

Nuf said I think... Not too sure what other ideas people may contribute,
but I guess that's a bit of a background on how things have progressed
for me. My Vision Impairment has only been a recent thing for me (last 6
months, 6 months before that I was only Visually Impaired in one eye).
It's a tough journey for em...

In any case, I may have to write my own word/text processing tool which
includes the features that I mentioned above :) Perhaps in Python, I
just lerant that 3 days ago :)

Thanks Guy, You rock!

cheers
James

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