what you see is all you get

1 definition found

what you see is all you get - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  What You See Is All You Get
  WYSIAYG
  
     <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)