Presentation

Existing document manipulation systems may be classified into various categories. There are batch formatters [Furuta] and interactive systems [Meyrowitz]. Some formatters such as Scribe [Reid] or Mint [Hibbard] consider the logical structure of the documents they manipulate. Some others, like TEX [Knuth] or Troff [Kernighan], are more concerned with layout, even if macros allow some structure to be introduced in the document.

Formatters have also evolved towards more friendly tools, that allow the user to see quickly on the screen the result of his work: TEX, for example, has several ‘preview’ systems. Janus [Chamberlin] is an original system that has been developed with the same approach. Although they allow the user to see the final form of the document on the screen, these systems cannot be considered as really interactive, as they do not allow the user to interact directly on the final form of the document. Other extensions to formatters have been proposed, by adding a truly interactive editor [André].