TWO COLUMN LAYOUT
NOTE: Two-column output is coded as unbalanced, butin APP Styler output,the first page of Chapter 5 and the first page of Chapter 6 have balanced columns. The other chapters are unbalanced. Output from the Styler-generated FOSI is correctly unbalanced throughout.
HYPENATED, RAGGED RIGHT
APP Styler hyph rr 2-col.pdf(fixed word spacing)has~77 hyphenations. The following paragraph in Chapter 1 suggeststhat hyphenation is set to a maximum of two successive lines. Otherwise, it seemsthe word "software" on the fourth linewould have been hyphenated. As it is, the third line is left noticeably short.
Two paragraphs down on the same page, notice the incorrect hyphenation of "cour-seware":
APP Styler hyph rr wordsp 2-col.style(variable word spacing)has~32 hyphenations, including three successive lines of hyphenation, which suggest the setting may not be two lines. However, the hyphen in "web-based" is authored, which perhaps makes a difference.
The output also includes incorrect hyphenation of "cour-seware":
NOTE: Comparing ragged right output with fixed and variable word spacing, some paragraphs look better with fixed space while others look better with variable spacing. In both cases, however, there are short lines.
Genfos hyph rr 2-col.pdf has just one hyphenation, which is in the footnote in Chapter 1.
HYPENATED, JUSTIFIED
InAPP Styler hyph justified 2-col.pdf(fixed word spacing), despite ~67 hyphenations there are a lot of tight and loose lines. Also, "cour-seware" is incorrectly hyphenated.
APP Styler hyph justified wordsp 2-col.pdf(variable word spacing), with 33 hyphenations, has a lot oftight and loose lines.
NOTE: Comparing justified output with fixed word spacing and variable word spacing, for some paragraphs it is better to use fixed space while for other paragraphs it is better to use variable spacing.
Genfos hyph justified 2-col.pdfhas ~58 hyphenations and excellent line breaking. Note that ragged right list items, including in table cells, are not hyphenated and look much better than the hyphenations in the APP Styler output.
CONCLUSIONS
The APP Styler output has loose lines, tight lines, short last lines, short next-to-last lines, and imperfect hyphenation.Considerin APP's lack of ligatures and sentence spacing, plus inferiorH&J, it is clear that TeX produces higher quality output.
Bottom line: APP is suitable for the interactive formatting it was originally designed for, because interactive formatting allows for manual correction of bad line breaks and incorrect hyphenation. But for top speed,top quality, database-driven,"lights-out"batch formatting of technical documentation and service information,the TeX-based engine is clearly the better choice.
Suzanne Napoleon
www.FOSIexpert.com"WYSIWYG is last-century technology!"
