Re: word processor document format: what parts?

[Todd Graham Lewis <tlewis mindspring net>]

On Sun, 20 Sep 1998, J. Patrick Narkinsky wrote:

> 	<bogusdoc>
> 	<bold>
> 		This is bolded text
> 	</bold>
> 	<italic>
> 		This is italic text
> 		<bold>
> 			This is bold/italic text
> 		</bold>
> 	</italic>
> 	</bogusdoc>
> Obviously, the above is a trivial example.

Don't forget the case of:

 	<bogusdoc>
 	<bold>
 		This is bolded text
 	<italic>
 		This is </bold> italic text
 		<bold>
 			This is bold/</italic>italic text
 		</bold>

Also, one interesting thought which I had was to have a default page
style, such that one could do:

	This is <size=18>some sized text, and<size=normal> this is normal

Just a little nugget to throw out.

I, too, have been struggling with the centrality of the editing component.
I am trying to figure out how not to make it one big opaque mushball,
and it is proving hard to do.  Again, I was thinking of having a very
simple document widget which only does the minimum; if you want to insert
a footnote, then an external footnote-insertion widget walks the document
widget through doing it.  (By widget, I mean it in the classical sense
of something undefined, not in the narrow X sense.)  The parts which I see
as _having_ to be in the editing widget are:

	- ownership of the document as private data only accessible
		through high-level accessor functions
	- display
	- actual editing; text insertion as opposed to adding document
		elements

Parts which I think can be external are:

	- document import/export/saving; just push/pull to/from the doc
		widget.
	- markup interfaces.  Changing the font to bold can and should be
		done by an external part that calls a 

	change_style( (style)bold, (selection)current_selection);

		on the document.  No need to hard-code the interface for
		those parts into the editing widget; that should be done
		on the front end.
	- other stuff; it's still hazy to me.

I would love to read what other people's read on this is.

Since I am going to a wedding in an hour and flying to California for
a week in five hours, I don't think that I will be able to make much
progress on this any time soon.  You can rest easy for a few days,
Mandrake.  8^)

--
Todd Graham Lewis            32°49'N,83°36'W          (800) 719-4664, x2804
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