Types of Editors
Types of Editors
[There are four panels, each with different headings and explanations of the headings above the panels.]
[The first three panels shows two titled text boxes, one above the other, with text inside. This text is formated with both small and capital letters as opposed to all capital letters in the rest of the comic.]
[Heading panel 1:] WYSIWYG What you see is what you get
[Panel 1.] What you see: Hi What you get: Hi
[Heading panel 2:] WYSINWYG What you see is not what you get
[Panel 2.] What you see: <em>Hi</em> What you get: Hi
[Heading panel 3:] WYSITUTWYG What you see is totally unrelated to what you get
[Panel 3.] What you see: <em>Hi</em> What you get: The HORSE is a noble animal.
[The fourth panel shows two titled text areas, the top is a black rectangle with white text in a very large font, and the bottom text area is not outlined with a border.]
[Heading panel 4:] WYSIHYD What you see is how you die
[Panel 4.] What you see: EATEN BY WOLVES What you get: Eaten by wolves

WYSIWYG , pronounced, "wizzy-wig" IPA /ˈwɪziˌwɪg/, is an acronym that stands for "What you see is what you get". In regards to computers, it refers to text editors in which the user can see exactly what will be published as they are typing it. The comic compares various types of editors, each one a play-on-words on WYSIWYG.
The title text is a fictitious command, meta -x machineofdeath-mode, to the highly extensible Emacs text editor. Emacs operates in various "modes", which are customizations for specific purposes. Placing Emacs into "Machine of Death" mode would turn it into a WYSIHYD editor. (For another fictitious emacs command see 378: Real Programmers ). See below for why this was used.
This is a reference to " Machine of Death ". This book from 2010 is a collection of short stories edited by amongst other Ryan North (of Dinosaur Comics ) mentioned here since the idea was based on one of his comics . Since Randall Munroe wrote one of the stories the reference is very likely, and would be Randall's first book promotion in xkcd, but not the last. All the stories are based around a device, the "Machine of Death", that can predict, with 100% accuracy though generally with extreme ambiguity, how people die from a drop of their blood. In many of the stories very unusual deaths are predicted, often in a very literal way, but not so you know when or where you will die. From the official home page the entire book can be downloaded for free as a PDF file . (Randall's story begins on page 421 - or page 218 of the two sided PDF file. It is simply called "?"). In 1525: Emojic 8 Ball the default question is How will I die? and can then be answered by an Emojic 8 Ball , which would make it a type of Machine of Death.
[There are four panels, each with different headings and explanations of the headings above the panels.]
[The first three panels shows two titled text boxes, one above the other, with text inside. This text is formated with both small and capital letters as opposed to all capital letters in the rest of the comic.]
[Heading panel 1:] WYSIWYG What you see is what you get
[Panel 1.] What you see: Hi What you get: Hi
[Heading panel 2:] WYSINWYG What you see is not what you get
[Panel 2.] What you see: <em>Hi</em> What you get: Hi
[Heading panel 3:] WYSITUTWYG What you see is totally unrelated to what you get
[Panel 3.] What you see: <em>Hi</em> What you get: The HORSE is a noble animal.
[The fourth panel shows two titled text areas, the top is a black rectangle with white text in a very large font, and the bottom text area is not outlined with a border.]
[Heading panel 4:] WYSIHYD What you see is how you die
[Panel 4.] What you see: EATEN BY WOLVES What you get: Eaten by wolves
