[sci.math.symbolic] How to read psfixed Mathematica-generated postscript files with IslandDraw

oliveria@caen.engin.umich.edu (ROQUE DONIZETE DE OLIVEIRA) (05/15/91)

About a week ago I posted a request about how to make IslandDraw 2.1 read postscript
files generated by Mathematica 1.2 . I got inumerous replies, basically all
suggesting I use psfix to fix the postscript file. This is what I had done but
didn't make clear in my previous posting. The postscript file I want IslandDraw
to read  is self-contained (it prints and ghostscript can read it). IslandDraw is
not a full fledged postscript interpreter but it can read "good" postscript files.
Unfortunately it seems the Mathematica-generated postscript file is very complex
(specially the MathScale thing). Thus, short of stripping off almost everything
in the file, is there anything I can do to modify the postscript file to something
more conforming (and readable by IslandDraw) ?

I did tried the program "distill" but it failed as well.
The only thing that worked was to run Mathematica in a Tektronix 4014 window
and then dump the graphics to a file, use ps4014 (which is part of the Transcript
package) to convert it to a postscript file, which can then be read by IslandDraw.

Thus if anyone has any suggestions (like how to modify the postscript prologue as
it is done by LaTex people to get MacIntosh-generated postscript files to work with 
LaTex/psfig) I'd like to hear. 

Also, if someone has Mathematica 2.0, I would appreciate getting a sample
(psfixed) postscript file (of say, a sine function) so I can see if IslandDraw
can read it. If the postscript prologue hasn't been modified since version 1.2
of Mathematica, then there is no point in sending me such a file.

I was going to use Maple V, but it can't even calculate the numerical values
of my function (a confluent hypergeometric function like M(1,3/2,z) ).

Thanks.

    Roque Oliveira
    oliveria@caen.engin.umich.edu

henry@angel.Eng.Sun.COM (Henry McGilton) (05/17/91)

In article <1991May14.221807.20977@engin.umich.edu>, oliveria@caen.engin.umich.edu (ROQUE DONIZETE DE OLIVEIRA) writes:

    *  About a week ago I posted a request about how to make
    *  IslandDraw 2.1 read postscript files generated by
    *  Mathematica 1.2 . I got numerous replies, basically all
    *  suggesting I use psfix to fix the postscript file. This is
    *  what I had done but didn't make clear in my previous
    *  posting. The postscript file I want IslandDraw to read  is
    *  self-contained (it prints and ghostscript can read it).

    *  IslandDraw is not a full fledged postscript interpreter but
    *  it can read "good" postscript files.
Somebody from Island Graphics `ought to be' replying to this.
However, to the best of my out of date knowledge, IslandDraw
does NOT contain a PostScript Interpreter.  IslandDraw's
predecessor, SunDraw, could read a limited subset of
ENCAPSULATED POSTSCRIPT -- that is PostScript containing a
preview image.  It is the preview image section that IslandDraw
(SunDraw) would display, with the result that every user then
leapt to the monstrous non-sequitor that IslandDraw contains a
PostScript Interpreter.

    *  Unfortunately it seems the Mathematica-generated postscript
    *  file is very complex (specially the MathScale thing). Thus,
    *  short of stripping off almost everything in the file, is
    *  there anything I can do to modify the postscript file to
    *  something more conforming (and readable by IslandDraw) ?

You didn't say WHY IslandDraw could not `read'
Mathematica-generated PostScript.  Does IslandDraw display any
messages?  Does it simply die?  Does it reject the
Mathematica-generated PostScript?   SunDraw used to expect to
import EPSF 1.2 format.  I don't know if IslandDraw was upgraded
to import EPSF 2.0 format.  What does the IslandDraw manual say
about EPSF?  In general, if a program designed to read
Encapsulated PostScript can't, the Encapsulated PostScript is
bogus in some way.  Remember that there are two versions of
Encapsulated PostScript for every application programmer
generating the stuff.


	........  Henry