Looking for PIM / Thesis Writing Software for the PC

Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Oct 20, 2009 at 03:25 AM

Manfred wrote:
>I know I am late to the party, but as someone who has no only written Ph.D. thesis, but
>also directed quite a few, I have been wondering about the following:
> >“Meanwhile,
>ConnectedText’s Win98-like interface, like so much of the PC stuff, doesn’t really
>cut it aesthetically.”
> >What does aesthetics have to do with researching and
>writing? When I wrote my dissertation I really wanted an IBM Selectric, but not
>because it was available in different (attractive) colors, but because its
>correction system was better than anything else available.

But what if the Selectric was lacking in subjective appeal for some reason _relevant_ to its _function_; say, you couldn’t stand the way the keys felt, even though you could type fast and accurately enough? That would seem a better analogy for the aesthetics of an interface; just as a typewriter keyboard is for typing, an application’s interface is for?looking.

>In the same way, I
>suppose that function should dictate form in software tools. As someone who actually
>uses ConnectedText in his research, I also feel that I need to pint out that its
>interface is very Win98-like to begin with. (Nor does it need DOSBox to run circles
>around GrandView—- sorry, but I could not help myself.)
> >Manfred