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Subject:Re: Future of Technical Writing From:Vicki Rosenzweig <murphy!acmcr!vr -at- UUNET -dot- UU -dot- NET> Date:Wed, 16 Nov 1994 10:12:20 EST
A close friend of mine was working on a pen-based word processor
a while ago. While it certainly is an appealing technology, there
were some real disadvantages, specifically that the software had to be
trained to work with the individual user (unlike a keyboard, where
anyone can press the "t" key and get a t) and would then react
badly to someone else. He brought it home and let me try it at one
point, and I wrote a word with a double t in it: the system interpreted
this as a capital H (because the lines (and order of lines) he used
for H were very close to what I used for tt, and there was no good
way to correct it. There may have been some progress since then, and
for some purposes you might not mind that the system becomes
user-specific, but I wouldn't call it a mature technology. (I would
also note that I don't think I'm ususual in being able to type
signicantly faster than I can handwrite.)
Vicki Rosenzweig
vr%acmcr -dot- uucp -at- murphy -dot- com
New York, NY
