Re: Emacs as word processor

[Thorsten Jolitz <tjolitz@gmail.com>]

Bastien <bzg@gnu.org> writes:

> But WYSIWYG as LibreOffice does it solves really two problems: one is
> the real WYSIWYG part (to edit a document with rich text formatting),
> the other one is a social one (to edit a document as others will see
> it.)

I once tried to help somebody writing a thesis in LaTeX with
[[(http://www.lyx.org/][LyX]]:

#+begin_quote
LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on
the structure of your documents (WYSIWYM) and not simply their appearance
(WYSIWYG).

LyX combines the power and flexibility of TeX/LaTeX with the ease of use of a
graphical interface.
#+end_quote

Quite an impressive program, but is it really a success? Very quickly, LyX
itself became the biggest obstacle of the project, and I realized how
wonderful plain tex(t) in an Emacs buffer really is ... the thesis was finally
written in Word or Open Office or so.

For me, LyX lacked the power and flexibility of Emacs AucTex as well as the
usability of the Libre Office alikes. Instead of combining the strengths of
both worlds it lost the benefits of both approaches. 

So if that might happen to an WYSIWYG Emacs, I would say its not worth the
pain, and all the effort should rather go into making the already fantastic
Org-mode even better. 

-- 
cheers,
Thorsten