Re: Emacs as word processor

[chad]

On 19 Nov 2013, at 01:02, Christoph <address@hidden> wrote:

> I think two different problems have been mentioned here. One is Wysiwyg-like 
> features the other the possibility to be compatible with other formats. For 
> me the latter problem is much more crucial. Here is the use case which may 
> illustrate a typical(?) situation:
> 
> In academia (humanities branch!) the MS Word format is still the "standard" 
> when you exchange editable documents. 

In this vein, it's worth noting that there are large fields
(publishing, legal, several industrial sciences, etc) where MS
Word's Reviewing, Track Changes, and Commenting features are
mandatory; anything that doesn't support those features is a
non-starter. Almost no Word-alikes support these features (well
enough to interoperate with Word), increasing Word's lock-in. A big
part of the problem is Word's continual changes in this area. It's
hard to believe that this is accidental or that it will stop any
time soon (especially given the horrors represented by Word's XML
formats).

I hope this helps,
~Chad