WYSIWYG

WYSIWYG

acronyms (in order of increasing obscurity):

WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get (basic)

WYSIAYG - What You See Is All You Get (used by hackers and computer programers)

WYSIAWYG - What You See Is Almost What You Get (most text editing programs)

WYSIMOLWYG - What You See Is More Or Less What You Get (another way of stating WYSIAWYG)

meaning:

· a description of an user interface that allows the user to view the end result while the document or graphic character is being created

· allows the user to concentrate entirely in how the content should appear, although having the trade-off of not have the results being easily fine-tuned

· also used to describe specifically a web-page creation program in which the user creates the webpage visually, while the program writes the HTML (hypertext markup language) for it

· most programs, even Microsoft Office, are not WYSIWYG since printing and page formatting are still hidden from view

· users expect WYSIWYG

historical notes:

· was originally a cataphrase on an old TV program called Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, (1968-1973)

· first applied to computers in the 1980's

· EMACS was one of the first WYSIWYG editors, replacing the program TeX which uses mark-up commands for formating

TMI:

http://www.atpm.com/4.12/page7.shtml

http://www.ideography.co.uk/library/seybold/WYSIWYG.html