Why Microsoft Word must Die, by Charles Stross

Posted by Dr Andus
Oct 13, 2013 at 11:21 AM

An interesting article in light of the recent discussions here about WYSIWYG vs. Markdown vs. LaTex.

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/10/why-microsoft-word-must-die.html

The comments are also an interesting read.

Here’s the gist:

“The reason I want Word to die is that until it does, it is unavoidable. I do not write novels using Microsoft Word. I use a variety of other tools, from Scrivener (a program designed for managing the structure and editing of large compound documents, which works in a manner analogous to a programmer’s integrated development environment if Word were a basic text editor) to classic text editors such as Vim. But somehow, the major publishers have been browbeaten into believing that Word is the sine qua non of document production systems. They have warped and corrupted their production workflow into using Microsoft Word .doc files as their raw substrate, even though this is a file format ill-suited for editorial or typesetting chores. And they expect me to integrate myself into a Word-centric workflow, even though it’s an inappropriate, damaging, and laborious tool for the job. It is, quite simply, unavoidable. And worse, by its very prominence, we become blind to the possibility that our tools for document creation could be improved. It has held us back for nearly 25 years already; I hope we will find something better to take its place soon.”