What You See Is All You Get
<jargon> (WYSIAYG) /wiz'ee-ayg/ Describes a user interface under which
"What You See Is *All* You Get"; an unhappy variant of WYSIWYG. Visual,
"point-and-drool interfaces" are easy to learn but often 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.
(1999-03-03)
Nearby terms:
whatis « What's a spline? « What You Get Is What You
Never Thought You Had « What You See Is All You
Get » What You See Is What You Get » wheel »
wheel bit
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