mouse@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU (der Mouse) (08/13/89)
>> I tried dxpsview to preview the file "icccm.ps" I downloaded from >> xstuff@expo.lcs.mit.edu, and it gave up on one of the very first >> postscript instructions [...]. >> The offending command was "framedevice". > Fixed in the next release (UWS2.2). The problem is that the > Previewer is a PostScript emulator, not a printer emulator. Seems to me the problem is that icccm.ps depends on a device-specific feature that is not present everywhere. According to my copy of the Red Book, framedevice matrix width height proc framedevice - .... framedevice is ordinarily invoked by higher-level procedures for setting up specific raster output devices; it is not usually executed directly by user programs (see section 4.9). Not all devices use frame buffers, so the framedevice operator may not be defined in some PostScript implementations. Section 4.9 says that .... Preferably, composition programs should not embed such device setup in page descriptions they produce, since doing so ties the page description to a specific device. Instead, special device setup should be added to a page description at the moment printing is requested, at which time the identity of the specific device is known. > "framedevice" is defined differently for every printer, and not at > all for the current previewer. Quite right. Indeed, even some real printers may not define it at all. How about it, X folks? Is it your intention to require us to have a certain type of printer in order to be able to print icccm.ps? der Mouse old: mcgill-vision!mouse new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu
rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (08/14/89)
How about it, X folks? Is it your intention to require us to have a
certain type of printer in order to be able to print icccm.ps?
(Geez, somebody's always flaming about something.) As far as I know, we use an
"off-the-shelf" utility (tpscript) for converting from ditroff output to
PostScript. We are not PostScript experts, and don't particularly want to be.
If the software has problems, there isn't much we're likely to be able to do
about it, unless somebody shoves a working solution in front of us.