anderson@macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) (04/23/91)
In article <CNH5730.91Apr22113629@maraba.tamu.edu> cnh5730@maraba.tamu.edu, who seems not to have a personal name, writes: >In article <1991Apr22.123026.23299@macc.wisc.edu> >anderson@macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) writes: > whether the posting of book reviews might be > appropriate for these newsgroups, an idea with which I > enthusiastically agree. >Bar none, my favorite intro-to-PostScript book is: > Learning PostScript, A Visual Approach > Ross Smith > ISBN# 0-938-151-12-6 > $22.95 > PeachPit Press > 1085 Keith Ave > Berkeley, CA 94708 > 415 527 8555 > 415 524 9775 (fax) > 800 283 9444 >The book consists of a page of PostScript graphics faced by >a page which contains the PostScript code necessary to >generate the image. >The book nicely proceeds from the simple to the sublime, and >embodies an interactive learning technique. I heartily >recommend it. I agree that Smith's book is first-rate, and I think a person who wanted to learn PostScript could easily begin with that. I started out with the Blue Book, quickly decided I also needed the Red Book (since issued in a second edition, known I think as the Red&White Book), then I got Smith's book. Very readable, easy to follow, and quite useful. I don't think it's directly comparable with Reid's book, however. I would say that Reid is not for rank beginners (he says in the Preface that probably you should have written some PS programs of 100 lines or more). Smith is quite useful for awakening a sense of the uses of procs, and in my (fairly limited) experience, writing and using procedures effectively is 90% of the PS programming battle. Reid (as I say, I've not read it closely yet) seems more concerned with creating a deeper awareness of the scope and applicability of the operator set, plus fostering a high degree of confidence in one's uses of the stack(s). When I first started, I had a very hard time keeping the stack contents in mind and constantly had to reassure myself by drawing little pictures that what I wanted was in there in the most useful order. Later on, you get accustomed to pushing and popping by using operators in a quasi-natural sequence, and you start trusting yourself about what's in the stack. <> The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it. <> -- Abbie Hoffman -- Jess Anderson <> Madison Academic Computing Center <> University of Wisconsin Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu <-best, UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson NeXTmail w/attachments: anderson@yak.macc.wisc.edu Bitnet: anderson@wiscmacc Room 3130 <> 1210 West Dayton Street / Madison WI 53706 <> Phone 608/262-5888