[comp.windows.news] PostScript programming

mo@maximo.UUCP (Mike O'Dell) (07/09/88)

Well folks, keep your shirt on.  Van Jacobson is
about to do it again.  He has developed something
called "PreScript" which is a compiler for a language
which bears a striking resemblence to another language
we all use, but simply compiles to Postscript.  He claims
it reduces pages of postscript to a few lines which look
amazingly like C.  Anyway, he is working to put this
stuff in distributable shape, and will then flush it
to the world.

Please don't pester him about this.  It will only slow it down.

	-Mike O'Dell

owen@SUN.COM (Owen Densmore) (12/09/88)

With DPS being made available as a product, PostScript programming
will become far more wide spread.  In particular, we've found in NeWS
that use of classes and inheritance is the most natural way to manage
large PostScript systems.

Is there any DPS version of the NeWS class.ps file in existance
today or being worked on?  If so, I'd like to coordinate the
NeWS version with it so we have a single OOP model shared between
the two systems.  In particular, we are looking at a very simple
form of multiple inheritance derived from David Singer's work
while he was at Schlumberger.

The model is quite simple: the superclass specification may include an
array of superclasses.  Note that class Object simply uses an empty
array, rather than the "null" it used to use.  Amazingly enough, the
code reduced in size in the conversion from single to multiple
inheritance.

If at all possible, I'd like the evolution of the classing mechanism
in NeWS and DPS to be coordinated.

Owen Densmore

msc@canth.SGI.COM (Mark Callow) (12/10/88)

In article <8812081944.AA10206@bigmac.sun.com>, owen@SUN.COM (Owen Densmore) writes:
> array of superclasses.  Note that class Object simply uses an empty
> array, rather than the "null" it used to use.  Amazingly enough, the
> code reduced in size in the conversion from single to multiple
> inheritance.
That's great news.  Does xnews use that version of class.ps?

> 
> If at all possible, I'd like the evolution of the classing mechanism
> in NeWS and DPS to be coordinated.
> 
> Owen Densmore

Hear, hear.  I hope someone at Adobe is listening.
--
From the TARDIS of Mark Callow
msc@sgi.sgi.com, ...{ames,decwrl,sun}!sgi!msc
"There is much virtue in a window.  It is to a human being as a frame is to
a painting, as a proscenium to a play.  It strongly defines its content."