In a message dated 2010.08.31 08:29 -0500, Andrew Douglas Pitonyak wrote:
I used a version [of WordPerfect Reveal Codes] once. I don't remember what it showed. Which of the following [numbers added to facilitate discussion] are shown: [1] Page styles [2] Numbering styles [3] character styles [4] paragraph styles [5] font change [6] italics [7] bold
To begin: 3 and all attributes of 3 (like 5,6,7 and much more), based on an early WP model of styles being either Open (going on forever) or Paired (going on until style closes). That style model, in turn, is based on a natural model of formatted text as (a) a stream of characters (b) laid down on some output medium (screen, paper, etc). IOW, it's a model very like SGML/HTML with styling, except that (at least the last time I looked), styling is not cascaded from multiple sources. That means that, to a larger extent than Word or Writer, much is under the user's control in the WP model. Style groupings that are media-dependent (like 1) or structural (like 4, or tables), can be defined as a user-defined grouping. For example, I can make a style "Envelope" and /call/ it a page style, but at root it is simply a Paired style.
Next: 2, although WP calls them "Outline styles" - being any hierarchical style set, nested to any level determined by the user (as opposed to Writer's fixed 10 levels).
So, as word processing goes, it's a very sleek, elegant and powerful model, derived from considering the basic elements of putting thoughts down on a medium of display, and letting the user build style constructs as needed, rather than defining construct classes. Reveal Codes shows them all - built-in attributes (like Bold) and user-defined styles (that might include Bold). [Note that WP distinction between "attributes" (which are always paired - of definite duration) and "styles" (which may be paired or open).] There is /nothing/ in a document that is not revealed. [I have Writer documents with spacing problems that I have not been able to diagnose; that never happened to me with WordPerfect - because, if needed, I could always look at the positioning codes.]
Does this differentiate between a change based on a style and a hard coded change?
Yes, explicitly.
What does it mean to delete a style from the display?
The style is removed, with all attributes of which it is composed.
Does this mean that things are set to use the default style, or to inherit the previous item's style?
Again, please see description above of Paired vs Open styles. One nice thing about Reveal Codes is to make it easy to see the effects of styles on output.
WordPerfect worked (if I remember correctly) by turning attributes on and off, which makes it easier to simply delete a tag (because you do not need to set it to something else).
That's right.
To properly duplicate the functionality as done in WP, would require significant effort (split display, etc), which is why it has likely not been done.
Splitting a display screen between the intended output (typically at the top of the screen) and the codes to produce that output (at the bottom) is a fairly natural use of screen real-estate; WP has done it forever. More likely what impedes the building of something like Reveal Codes for Writer is the fundamental difference in the document model: a Writer document is not a stream of characters punctuated by structures like frames and tables, but a collection of objects including streamed characters, needing something like an XML structure editor.
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