From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jun 6 21:22:16 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 425271065672 for ; Sun, 6 Jun 2010 21:22:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0187A8FC1B for ; Sun, 6 Jun 2010 21:22:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r55.edvax.de (port-92-195-117-232.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.117.232]) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2F06D1E473; Sun, 6 Jun 2010 23:22:15 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r55.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r55.edvax.de (8.14.2/8.14.2) with SMTP id o56LMEDf002538; Sun, 6 Jun 2010 23:22:14 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2010 23:22:14 +0200 From: Polytropon To: Roland Smith Message-Id: <20100606232214.4146453e.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20100606210311.GA20105@slackbox.erewhon.net> References: <20100606203416.GF46089@libertas.local.camdensoftware.com> <20100606223826.62a42f7a.freebsd@edvax.de> <20100606210311.GA20105@slackbox.erewhon.net> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.7 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: office apps X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:22:16 -0000 On Sun, 6 Jun 2010 23:03:11 +0200, Roland Smith wrote: > Don't forget LaTeX! Especially since it is quite easy for scripting languages > to generate LaTeX code (automation). Oh, but *I* didn't forget LaTeX. The OP requested a word processor, not a typesetting system (which is the next evolutionary step). :-) But you are right: LaTeX is excellent because it does all the things right that word processors do get right after you invested several hours configuring them, or don't get it right at all. In this relation, LyX should also be mentioned, a kind of "WYSIWYG" interface to LaTeX (inaccurately spoken). > > > If it could also be used without X11 when > > > charting isn't needed, that would make my day. > > > > CVS for data, C or awk for processing, gnuplot for plotting. :-) > > For real data munching, programming languages do a much better job indeed. Especially if efficiency is a topic ("number crunching"), nothing beats native binary code. > May > I also suggest Perl, Lua and Python al alternatives to C and awk? Especially Perl is worth mentioning. > And 'make' > to tie everything together. Totally agreed; I also (ab)use it for controlling tasks (like making web pages out of statistical data). > Unless your machine is severely underpowered or > your datasets are _huge_, scripting languages tend to be fast enough for data > processing, IMHO. And of course a bit more comfortable to use. > The general weakness of office suites is _automation_, something that programs > following the UNIX philosophy excel at. (pardon the pun). Quoting Doug McIlroy: > > This is the Unix philosophy: Write programs that do one thing and do it > well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, > because that is a universal interface. A nice summary. And true. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...