[OS X TeX] Who should use (La)TeX - who is able to use it?

[Mark Smith]

Chris Goedde wrote:

>While I think it would be possible to make the sort of GUI front end you
>are advocating, I don't think it would be as simple or as useful as you
>think.

I can agree with this...

>TeX very clearly separates content from formatting.

...but not with this.

Separation of content from formatting is not really what TeX is about. That's more the domain of XML.

>In a typical GUI, the separation between these two is much less clear.

Not really. 

Any word processor COULD make use of an XML file format upon which you
could run various transforms each of which produces a different style
variant. Some do (e.g. SendStory or InCopy (allowing that we bunch these in with WPs) or Mellel (which has named styles and (last I heard) was moving towards XML).

Tex and LaTeX offer a diluted and incomplete separation of content and style, but so do word processors.

>This has important consequences for usability.

This is true, but its not particularly relevant to the distinctions
between TeX and WPs IMO.

mark.
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