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WYSIAYG


WYSIAYG: /wiz'ee-ayg/ adj. Describes a user interface under
   which "What You See Is *All* You Get"; an unhappy variant of
   WYSIWYG.  Visual, `point-and-shoot'-style interfaces tend to
   have easy initial learning curves, but also to lack depth; they
   often frustrate advanced users who would be better served by a
   command-style interface.  When this happens, the frustrated user
   has a WYSIAYG problem.  This term is most often used of editors,
   word processors, and document formatting programs.  WYSIWYG
   `desktop publishing' programs, for example, are a clear win for
   creating small documents with lots of fonts and graphics in them,
   especially things like newsletters and presentation slides.  When
   typesetting book-length manuscripts, on the other hand, scale
   changes the nature of the task; one quickly runs into WYSIAYG
   limitations, and the increased power and flexibility of a
   command-driven formatter like TeX or UNIX's troff
   becomes not just desirable but a necessity.  Compare YAFIYGI.