bukys@cs.rochester.edu (04/16/91)
We're running some old version of Transcript on our Suns, licensed from Adobe. Most things in it seem dated around 1987. I think it's version 2.1. The psrev program that is part of this package is good at mangling files into unprintability. Embedded figures are good at causing this problem. The page reversal code just picks the wrong points for breaking up the document. It doesn't look for %%BeginDocument/%%EndDocument comments. Is there a version of Transcript that does this any better? If so, whose Transcript, and what version number? My observation from sending PostScript files to other people is that half of the page-reversers out there are broken. Perhaps Adobe should consider releasing a version that works (if there is one) into the public domain. As it is, this problem is just gives PostScript portability a black eye. (The other eye is already black from the poor PostScript generated by many applications.) I get tired of prepending "%!" to things just to get them to print. And even if I get a program that works, I still have to tell half of the people I send files to try prepending "%!" if they have problems.
clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis) (04/19/91)
In article <9104151752.AA13235@stork.cs.rochester.edu> bukys@cs.rochester.edu writes: >We're running some old version of Transcript on our Suns, licensed from >Adobe. Most things in it seem dated around 1987. I think it's version 2.1. >The psrev program that is part of this package is good at mangling files >into unprintability. Embedded figures are good at causing this problem. >The page reversal code just picks the wrong points for breaking up the >document. It doesn't look for %%BeginDocument/%%EndDocument comments. psxlate (part of psroff 2.0 and psroff 3.0) purports to reverse pages. (along with several other page flipping algorithms and n-up) The only things it looks at are %!PS-Adobe-, %%Page:, and %%Trailer. If you could mail me a description of what other headers it should be looking at and what to do with them, maybe I can get it to it it properly for you. Alternately, you can take the psxlate from psroff 3.0 and fix it and mail me the changes. Psroff 3.0 should be coming out on comp.sources.unix about now. >(The other eye is already black from the poor >PostScript generated by many applications.) You can hardly blame Postscript or Adobe for this. Lots of people write pretty bad C code too... Though, a PD Postscript server would really help. -- Chris Lewis, Phone: (613) 832-0541, Internet: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca UUCP: uunet!mitel!cunews!latour!ecicrl!clewis; Ferret Mailing List: ferret-request@eci386; Psroff (not Adobe Transcript) enquiries: psroff-request@eci386 or Canada 416-832-0541. Psroff 3.0 in c.s.u soon!