[Traced to Flip Wilson's "Geraldine" character c.1970] Describes a
user interface under which "What You See Is What You Get", as opposed
to one that uses more-or-less obscure commands that do not result in
immediate visual feedback. True WYSIWYG in environments supporting
multiple fonts or graphics is a rarely-attained ideal; there are
variants of this term to express real-world manifestations including
WYSIAWYG (What You See Is Almost What You Get) and WYSIMOLWYG (What
You See Is More or Less What You Get). All these can be mildly
derogatory, as they are often used to refer to dumbed-down
{user-friendly} interfaces targeted at non-programmers; a hacker has
no fear of obscure commands (compare {WYSIAYG}). On the other hand,
{EMACS} was one of the very first WYSIWYG editors, replacing
(actually, at first overlaying) the extremely obscure, command-based
{TECO}. See also {WIMP environment}. [Oddly enough, WYSIWYG made it
into the 1986 supplement to the OED, in lower case yet. --ESR]
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {line noise}{WYSIAYG}{YAFIYGI}]