john@RENOIR.BERKELEY.EDU (John Coker) (09/14/87)
Sorry to people who aren't interested, but the original posting apparently
confused some people. So, here is the updated announcement. Many people tried
to mail to me, but our mailer couldn't respond to most people who weren't close
to the arpa net. So, if you think I should have replied to you, but didn't
and still have unanswered questions, please try again, with an address you
think works from here (Berkeley.EDU).
John Coker
UPS version 0.2 is now available for use in binary-only form (for Vax and
Sun 68020 machines) via public ftp and uucp from ucbvax (Berkeley.EDU). For
ftp, the file names are (~ftp/pub/) ups0.2.vax and ups0.2.sun (compressed
versions of these files also exist). For uucp, the files are (~uucp/)
ups0.2.vax.uue and ups0.2.sun.uue (uuencoded, compressed tar files).
The major improvement in 0.2 (over 0.1) is that font rendering is now
implemented. Unfortunately, we still do not have the shapes (outlines) of
Adobe's fonts for the LaserWriter. So, the standard LaserWriter fonts are
available for use, but each character prints as a rectangle the size of the
bounding box of its image (as given in the AFM files distributed by Adobe).
This is sufficient for the moment for the previewing function although less
than pleasant for pages with more than a small amount of text. There are
still problems with character placement with non-standard orientations.
There are also many small bug fixes and improvements as one would expect.
One important fix is that now UPS will run on color displays (although true
color devices are not supported as they should be). Also, many missing
operators have been added, especially those affecting the graphics state.
UPS is a PostScript interpreter under UNIX which can image on an X
window. Even though it is still under development, I think the program is
useful and I'm always intereted in hearing about bugs and suggestions.
Address all correspondence to john@renoir.Berkeley.EDU (if you're reporting
a bug, please check the list of known bugs in BUGS0.2 before you send mail).
Please don't ask for sources yet; they will be available when version 1.0 is
released.
Enjoy,
John Coker
john@renoir.Berkeley.EDU
September 9, 1987gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) (09/14/87)
john@RENOIR.BERKELEY.EDU (John Coker) wrote: > UPS version 0.2 is now available for use in binary-only form... > Please don't ask for sources yet; they will be available when version 1.0 is > released. Will the sources be free [freedom, not cost], or is the state-owned University of California getting into the commercial software business? -- {dasys1,ncoast,well,sun,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu gnu@postgres.berkeley.edu
brooks@lll-crg.arpa (Eugene D. Brooks III) (09/15/87)
In article <2953@hoptoad.uucp> gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes: >Will the sources be free [freedom, not cost], or is the state-owned >University of California getting into the commercial software business? Who frigging cares! If ups in its released form can preview my ditroff-> postscript output (which it currently can't) I would be willing to pay hard cache (pun intended) for the rights to use it.
john@RENOIR.BERKELEY.EDU (John Coker) (09/16/87)
Since a message I would like to respond to was send to this alias, I will followup to the alias also. > From: lll-crg.arpa!brooks@lll-lcc.arpa (Eugene D. Brooks III) > Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory > Subject: Re: X PostScript previewer (again) > To: xpert@athena.mit.edu > > In article <2953@hoptoad.uucp> gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes: > >Will the sources be free [freedom, not cost], or is the state-owned > >University of California getting into the commercial software business? > > Who frigging cares! If ups in its released form can preview my ditroff-> > postscript output (which it currently can't) I would be willing to pay > hard cache (pun intended) for the rights to use it. Previewing psdit output was a use I hadn't considered for a PostScript previewer. In retrospect it makes sense, but I don't think it's practical for several reasons: 1) We don't have the LaserWriter font shapes, and probably never will. UPS is almost useless for previewing large amounts of text (each character print as the bounding box of its image). 2) Speed. This may not be that much of a problem, but certain obvious optimizations for document previewing are not made by a general PS interpreter). 3) Legibility. Scan-converted characters which are 10-20 pixels high high are going to be difficult to distinguish (if it's possible to distinguish them at all). 4) it seems to me that ditroff->PS->previewing is putting an expensive and unnecessary step in the previewing process. Why not just a troff previewer for X? What the troff world needs is a good troff previewer for X. There is at least one for TeX (which we use here). For one thing, you want raster fonts and document page cacheing at the very least. On the subject of U of C selling software. It might, but UPS sources will be availble for a nominal cost when version 1.0 emerges. Until then, it's easier for me not to have to deal with other people's ports/enhancements. I will welcome ports, etc. when there is a sound and stable basis to work from. And, in case you didn't know, the Regents of the University of California is a corporation, which can own software (among other things). John
axel@coma.UUCP (09/18/87)
/***** coma:comp.windows.x / lll-lcc!brooks / 11:01 pm Sep 14, 1987*/ >In article <2953@hoptoad.uucp> gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes: >>Will the sources be free [freedom, not cost], or is the state-owned >>University of California getting into the commercial software business? > >Who frigging cares! If ups in its released form can preview my ditroff-> >postscript output (which it currently can't) I would be willing to pay >hard cache (pun intended) for the rights to use it. If you want to use ups as previewer for text-processing applications that, like ditroff, make use of 'built-in' (i.e. Adobe) PostScript fonts, you must have the font-definitions. This means, you will have to spend a considerable amount of money just for the Adobe type library. Does anybody know of free PostScript fonts ? Has anybody ever thought about implementing a PostScript-backend for Metafont ?? Axel Mahler, Tech.Univ. Berlin UUCP: axel@coma.uucp (unido!coma!axel) BITNET: axel@db0tui62.bitnet
john@RENOIR.BERKELEY.EDU (John Coker) (09/21/87)
> If you want to use ups as previewer for text-processing applications > that, like ditroff, make use of 'built-in' (i.e. Adobe) PostScript > fonts, you must have the font-definitions. This means, you will have > to spend a considerable amount of money just for the Adobe type > library. > > Does anybody know of free PostScript fonts ? Has anybody ever > thought about implementing a PostScript-backend for Metafont ?? There are free PostScript fonts around, but none of them look like the standard LaserWriter fonts which every PostScript program in the world uses. So any other fonts are not sufficient. It may be possible to get the shapes from METAFONT, but this will almost certainly require a partial rewrite of the METAFONT program itself since the character shapes are described on high-level objects like strokes. John
mike@turing.unm.edu.unm.edu (Michael I. Bushnell) (09/25/87)
In article <8709211613.AA10595@renoir.Berkeley.EDU> john@RENOIR.BERKELEY.EDU (John Coker) writes: > It may be possible to get the shapes from METAFONT, but this will almost >certainly require a partial rewrite of the METAFONT program itself since the >character shapes are described on high-level objects like strokes. > > John Actually it isn't that hard. METAFONT produces 2 kinds of files when given foo.mf as input. 1) a tfm -- the font metric table for TeX. You can convert this to the proper form for whatever formatter you use (troff, TeX, etc.) 2) A gf -- the pixel map. The entire job of metafont is converting strokes into pixel maps. The maps are in a Generic Font format which is designed to be easily convertable to whatever form the printing software desires. Michael I. Bushnell a/k/a Bach II mike@turing.UNM.EDU --- You can't hurt me!! I have an ASSUMABLE MORTGAGE!! -- Zippy the Pinhead