david@dalcs.UUCP (David Trueman) (10/13/87)
Has anyone used the devps package from Pipeline Associates for interfacing with
a postscript printer? I would appreciate any positive or negative comments,
or comparisons with Transcript from Adobe. Devps is considerably less
expensive than Transcript.
Thanks in advance.
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INTERNET david%dalcs@uunet.UU.NETlmm@labsms.UUCP (10/15/87)
> Has anyone used the devps package from Pipeline Associates > for interfacing with a postscript printer? I would > nappreciate any positive or negative comments, or comparisons with > Transcript from Adobe. Devps is considerably less expensive > than Transcript. We have both packages on a machine, and use them both, I like the 'enscript' program that comes with Transcript for printing straigt text files. (the Devps has a similar program but not as flexible). When printing troff documents, Devps gives you a lot more capabilities than what I've been able to do with Transcript. ie: downloadable fonts inclusion of Macpaint documents inclusion of PostScript code in a troff document. Fancy macros to do shading, rotation, etc on text. Summary: Transcript is better for printing plain text files in various ways. Devps is better for Troff documents. (If you want to be fancy, otherwise they both work fine)
tim@ora.UUCP (Tim O'Reilly) (10/16/87)
In article <2660@dalcs.UUCP>, david@dalcs.UUCP (David Trueman) writes: > Has anyone used the devps package from Pipeline Associates for interfacing with > a postscript printer? I would appreciate any positive or negative comments, > or comparisons with Transcript from Adobe. Devps is considerably less > expensive than Transcript. I'm not at all unbiased, since I know Steve Kochan and Pat Wood (the Pipeline Associates people) quite well from working with them on the troff book I did for Hayden (they are consulting editors for the series). We used devps to typeset that book, and since then have become a reseller for the product. With that proviso, I will say that I think devps is a great package. I haven't used transcript yet, and so I can't compare. (We just got an evaluation copy, and I'd be glad to post information after I've looked at it.) However, from my conversations with the people at Adobe, I get the feeling that it's a bit of an orphan there. One guy I talked to at Adobe seemed to suggest that he himself didn't doubt devps was better than transcript. -- Tim O'Reilly (617) 527-4210 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Publishers of Nutshell Handbooks 981 Chestnut Street, Newton, MA 02164 UUCP: uunet!ora!tim ARPA: tim@ora.uu.net
patwood@unirot.UUCP (Patrick Wood) (10/17/87)
By the way, we have just added EPSF handling capability to devps (to the macroff program). Any devps licensees out there that want a new copy should just send me mail. EPSF files include Illustrator files, BTW. Pat Wood bellcore!phw5!phw flash.bellcore.com!phw5!phw rutgers!unirot!phw5!phw
barnett@vdsvax.steinmetz.UUCP (Bruce G Barnett) (10/20/87)
In article <99600003@labsms.UUCP> lmm@labsms.UUCP writes: |When printing troff documents, Devps gives you a lot more capabilities |than what I've been able to do with Transcript. | |ie: downloadable fonts | inclusion of Macpaint documents | inclusion of PostScript code in a troff document. | Fancy macros to do shading, rotation, etc on text. I don't have devps, but I have installed the recently released psfig (check comp.sources.unix). This allows similar things, but I have having to go through some gyrations to get the fancy stuff, like outlined fonts, downloadable fonts (I want the Berkeley Versatec Fonts), and the other goodies. So with ditroff and transcript and psfig - the packages are *somewhat* comparable. It can do MacPaint documents, Postscript diagrams, etc. You may also need bbfig - which is a small postscript/shell script that shows you the bounding box for the postscript diagram you want to print. Perhaps someone who is familiar with devps and ditroff/psfig can comment on the advantages/disadvantages of each? -- Bruce G. Barnett <barnett@ge-crd.ARPA> <barnett@steinmetz.UUCP> uunet!steinmetz!barnett
richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (10/21/87)
In article <2796@vdsvax.steinmetz.UUCP> Bruce G Barnett writes: > >I don't have devps, but I have installed the recently released psfig (check >comp.sources.unix). This allows similar things, but I have having to >go through some gyrations to get the fancy stuff, like outlined fonts, >downloadable fonts (I want the Berkeley Versatec Fonts), and the other ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ What is the legal status of these fonts ? Owned by Berkely ? Versatec ? PD ? What ? Yes, I read Chuck Bigalow's article, I'm talking about the specific case where these fonts are converted to another machine form the original binaries. > Bruce G. Barnett -- Richard J. Sexton INTERNET: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, ihnp4, nosc}!crash!gryphon!richard "It's too dark to put the keys in my ignition..."