dfb%computer-science.nottingham.ac.uk@UCL-CS.ARPA (David F Brailsford) (12/10/85)
I have been reading 'laser-lovers' for some time now but have deliberately refrained from joining the fray knowing full well what I might let myself in for ... However, Background ++++++++++ a group of us here at the University of Nottingham in CompSci and/or Mathematics have been involved for about 3 years in phototypesetting using the troff/tbl/eqn software. With a highly tuned version of 'eqn' we have equipped our examinations office for the typesetting 'in-house' of almost all examination papers at an annual saving to the University of about 18000 pounds. This was all very heartwarming, but in the course of this adventure we tried two typesetters. The first was a Mergenthaler-Linotype Omnitech (I forget the model no. - but its the one that used Xerographic laser technology rather than bromide). This machine has been so accurately described by others as a "total electronic and mechanical disaster area" that I shall not waste further slanderous epithets on it. Suffice it to say that it proved so slow and unreliable that we bought a Linotype 202 which is a good machine and performs just fine. In the course of digging out a suitable slave language (Binary Byte) for the 202, from the Mergenthaler vaults, we got to know Bill Davy and David Harris (then of Linotype and based at Cheltenham (England)) and heavily involved with phototypesetter software of various kinds. We soon began to collaborate on various aspects of UNIX/troff typesetting and all was going well until THE NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES. US readers may be only dimly aware that, in February 1983, Mergenthaler-Linotype decided that one of its three research establishments (then located in the US, Germany and the UK) would have to be axed. When the blow fell at Cheltenham there was considerable fury (justified in my view) that the outfit which had designed the award-winning 202 got hit whereas the US establishment which had foisted the Omnitech on an unsuspecting populace got off scot free. However ... Chelgraph +++++++++ Several of the people fired at the start of '83 formed Chelgraph. This is a small company, also based in Cheltenham, and includes, as well as Bill Davy and David Harris, the two hardware designers of the Linotype 202 namely, Rod Craig and John Brooks. To cut a long story short they designed a RIP front end which can interface to a variety of back-end hardware (e.g. Canon CX, Ricoh, Xerox etc). The features offered by the hardware/software in the front end are in the same spirit as the Adobe/Postscript/Laserwriter package but the overall philosophy is rather different. They've now achieved that ultimate accolade of a write-up in a recent "Seybold Report", so you can find more details there. ACE and the Chelgraph RIP +++++++++++++++++++++++++ ACE (ASCII coded escapement language) is the slave language of the Chelgraph RIP. It incorporates various graphic primitives, very much along the lines of the GKS/VDM facilities and also has a means of setting text using a scheme of embedded displacements (as in Brian Kernighan's ditroff language) but with a scheme for expressing the character escapements in various number bases so that the number of bytes can be greatly reduced. Characters are held in the RIP in a simple outline form, known as Cambray code,where the character outline is approximated by horizontal and vertical displacements. It has the advantage over spline representations that the outline-to-raster conversion can proceed very quickly. The disadvantage is that, when scaling UP from the master size, the steps begin o show fairly quickly, but scaling DOWN is OK. Other facilities include the ability to alter the `text vector' (so that text can be rotated, wrapped around shapes etc. etc.,) and the ability to superpose images in layers to achieve complex effects. Many varieties of grey-shading and boundary hatch-styles are available Overall, ACE is not as feature-laden as PostScript but it does seem to be a nice compromise, giving features well above the "everything must be a bit-map" approach and being able to do just about everything that the Laserwriter can do. However, ACE itself is very much in the tradition of UNIX/C minimalist software and stops well short of `bigger' languages like PostScript Ditroff driver ============= We here at Nottingham have done a ditroff driver for the Chelgraph machine. The closeness of the ACE language to the output from bwk's ditroff has made the driver software a complete doddle to write. At the moment we are using trial fonts from here there and everywhere but some better ones are promised from Monotype 'soon'. I should emphasise that, apart from the extended loan of the Chelgraph machine, I am not receiving *any* form of remuneration nor do I have any financial interest in Chelgraph. Contacts (and EP86) ======== Anyone interested in this stuff is very welcome to contact me here <dfb@uk.ac.nott.cs>. David Harris of Chelgraph logs in here from time to time to pick up his e-mail and is obtainable as <djh@uk.ac.nott.cs>. However, if you want to have a face-to-face chat why dont y'all come to our Electronic Publishing Conference (EP86) from 14-16 April 1986. Speakers include Chuck Bigelow, Kris Holmes, Brian Reid, Vania Joloboff, Richard Furuta, David Harris etc. etc. A Civic Reception is built in to the EP86 package - you *may* even get to meet the modern day Sheriff of Nottingham (but no guarantees!). In any event we do have "The Trip to Jerusalem" which serves Real Ale and is one of the contenders for "Oldest Pub in England". EP86 Registration forms should be out within the next week or two and, if you received the original "Call for Papers", you should get a form soon. In case of difficulty contact Christine Edginton British Computer Society 13 Mansfield Street LONDON W1M 0BP Tel. (+44) 1 637 0471 TELEX: 262284