WYSIAYG

	This is the JargonFile ^(V4.00) entry for WYSIAYG - Next: WYSIWYG, Prev: wumpus
:WYSIAYG: /wizee-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 Unixs [[troff]] becomes not just desirable but a necessity. Compare YAFIYGI.
* (text is auto-included via JargonExtension by mutante using jargon with VERSION 4.0.0, 24 JUL 1996* - JargonFile by Eric S. Raymond is in the public domain)*