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Subject: Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: Best tool for DocBook
Hi Dennis, I almost regret having entered this discussion, since I can't claim to be knowledgeable on any editor for DocBook other than Emacs, not having used any other. I only wanted to point out that although the learning curve is practically vertical for Emacs, there are benefits. Perhaps I misunderstand your points here, but I'd like to offer a brief response: > I would argue that (2) the Emacs/psgml control key > functions are stone knives and bear skins compared to the tags-on markup > modes of XMetal and Epic. I find keyboard control very useful, and any editor that has it as an option is better for it--more choice. I agree that it takes time to learn the essential key commands, and perhaps Emacs goes a bit overboard in that direction. However, I find that once they are internalized they come automatically, but no matter how easy it is the first time to click my mouse on a menu item, it takes the same amount of effort each time, and the necessary motor-control can't internalize to the same degree. > I would argue that (1) a good tool doesn't require the user to write a set > of macros to make it user friendly I would say that a good tool offers the ability to customize it to suit the user's needs. Macros cut my work to less than half, and I don't think there are any editors available that have, built-in, the specific functionality that I need. If other editors have simple, powerful macro capabilities equal or better than Emacs, that's great. Finally, I think most people on this list would agree that no matter which tool we choose (or are stuck with) there is plenty of room for improvement. Perhaps this discussion will bear fruit in giving tool developers an idea of the diverse needs of the DocBook editing community. Cheerio! Bob --------------------------------------- Robert McIlvride (robert@cogent.ca) Cogent Real-Time Systems (www.cogent.ca)
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