Re: Word Processors

[John R Sheets <dusk smsi-roman com>]

Timothy Ritchey wrote:
> 
> If they would take the same time instead to mark up
> a text contextually with information about the structure of the
> document, based on standard XML/SGML DTDs, they would be adding
> information which would actually make such documents USABLE beyond the
> simple act of printing them out.

Yes, that's a very good point that I'd missed.  All the style hoopla
should be external to the document (i.e. passively declared).  Another
added benefit is that styles will be user-customizable.

With Word, as I understand it, templates are more like rubber stamps
than filters.  You use them to create the base document, then modify it
from there.  With an XML approach, the styles would not be embedded. 
Getting back to my resume example, the resume document itself would not
change for different styles.  You'd load it with a different display
filter (that's a style sheet, right?), which would change the font and
possibly rearrange the order that the employment history info is
displayed.

And the effort put into the style sheet does not need to be duplicated
for each and every document.  Or, rather, if you make a change in the
style sheet, it is propagated instantly to all documents that use it.

I like this approach.

John