twl@cs.brown.edu (Ted "Theodore" W. Leung) (09/28/90)
I'm interested in learning about PostScript. Can someone give me a list of books that I should read/have in order to do some serious PostScript programming? Thanks, Ted -- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet/CSnet: twl@cs.brown.edu | Ted "Theodore" Leung BITNET: twl@BROWNCS.BITNET | Box 1910, Brown University UUCP: uunet!brunix!twl | Providence, RI 02912
henry@hourglass.Eng.Sun.COM (Henry McGilton) (09/28/90)
In article <TWL.90Sep27143018@boojum.cs.brown.edu>, twl@cs.brown.edu (Ted "Theodore" W. Leung) writes:
* I'm interested in learning about PostScript. Can
* someone give me a list of books that I should read/have
* in order to do some serious PostScript programming?
Beginners should start with `Learning PostScript -- A
Visual Approach' by Ross Smith, Peachpit Press, and then go
on to read the `PostScript Language Tutorial And Cookbook'
(the `Blue Book') by Adobe Systems.
Having read those books, you'd be an intermediate reader,
who should read `Real World PostScript' by Stephen Roth,
alongside Intermediate Readers should also read `PostScript
Language Program Design' by Glenn Reid.
Finally, to do `serious PostScript programming' you should have the
PostScript Language Reference Manual, published by Adobe Systems
(the `Red Book') available. Also, `Graphic Design With PostScript'
by Gerard Kunkel has a lot of good stuff about color.
That's my three ha'pence worth.
........ Henryglenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) (09/29/90)
In article <1011@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> henry@hourglass.Eng.Sun.COM (Henry McGilton) writes: :In article <TWL.90Sep27143018@boojum.cs.brown.edu>, twl@cs.brown.edu (Ted "Theodore" W. Leung) writes: : : * I'm interested in learning about PostScript. Can : * someone give me a list of books that I should read/have : * in order to do some serious PostScript programming? In addition to the other suggestions that Henry provided, I can't resist a plug for my forthcoming book from Addison-Wesley, "Thinking in PostScript". If you're a C programmer who knows little or nothing about PostScript, then you're exactly the target audience. If you're already a pretty good PostScript programmer, you're part of the secondary audience. My hope is also that even Henry and Woody and the seasoned experts will find something of value in there somewhere. It's not exactly a beginner's guide, but it provides some very fundamental concepts like loops, variables, conditionals, and file I/O in pretty good detail. It should be out in a week or two, according to my spies. Sorry about the plug. /Glenn -- Glenn Reid RightBrain Software glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us PostScript/NeXT developers ..{adobe,next}!heaven!glenn 415-851-1785
woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) (09/29/90)
In article <1011@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>, henry@hourglass.Eng.Sun.COM (Henry McGilton) writes: > > Beginners should start with `Learning PostScript -- A > Visual Approach' by Ross Smith, Peachpit Press, and then go This one is a new one on me. I think I'll go look it up. As for the rest of these, I would recommend a slightly diffrent order. I started with the Blue and Red books, because that was all that was available. I would strongly urge the reading of the GREEN book first, then the Blue book, with the Red book for reference. Finaly go to the Orange book and the black font book. The Green book goes into a lot of programming philosophy. To write truely good programs, one needs to develop a good programming gestalt first. The Green book does this, and does it very well. While I don't agree with the coding style (I prefer a more PASCAL like structure), the technical content of the book is the best of any of them. Once you have read the Green book, then sit down and program, but not until. > Cheers Woody
jj1h+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joseph Jackson) (09/29/90)
Excerpts from netnews.comp.lang.postscript: 27-Sep-90 Re: Postscript Books Henry McGilton@hourglass (1016) > In article <TWL.90Sep27143018@boojum.cs.brown.edu>, twl@cs.brown.edu > (Ted "Theodore" W. Leung) writes: > * I'm interested in learning about PostScript. Can > * someone give me a list of books that I should read/have > * in order to do some serious PostScript programming? > Finally, to do `serious PostScript programming' you should have the > PostScript Language Reference Manual, published by Adobe Systems > (the `Red Book') available. When I was learning PostScript this summer, I found that reading the Red Book's first five chapters made many "foreign" PostScript concepts very clear to me. Of course, the last chapter containing the detailed operator descriptions makes better reference material than reading material but I would strongly recommend reading the first five chapters. It's only about 100 pages and is organized nicely into sections. The third chapter describes PostScript from a languages point of view and was especially helpful to me. Joe Jackson Distributed Workstation Services Carnegie Mellon University Internet: jj1h+@andrew.cmu.edu Bitnet: jj1h+@ANDREW AT&Tnet: (412) 268-8799
mr@ogre (Michael Regoli) (09/30/90)
In <sb11mO600VQp89QGVD@andrew.cmu.edu> jj1h+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joseph
Jackson) writes:
Finally, to do `serious PostScript programming' you should have the
PostScript Language Reference Manual, published by Adobe Systems
(the `Red Book') available.
Is the new second edition Red Book available yet? Last I heard was
"Fall, 1990."
--
michael regoli
mr@cica.cica.indiana.edu
regoli@iubacs.bitnet
...rutgers!iuvax!cica!mrwoody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) (10/03/90)
In article <283@heaven.woodside.ca.us>, glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) writes: > In article <1011@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> henry@hourglass.Eng.Sun.COM (Henry McGilton) writes: > > In addition to the other suggestions that Henry provided, I can't > resist a plug for my forthcoming book from Addison-Wesley, > "Thinking in PostScript". If you're a C programmer who knows little > Sorry about the plug. > That is quite alright. I've been waiting for it to come out. I tend to aquire any postscript book that I find. There are few things as valuable a knowlege. No matter what your level of expertise in whatever field that you pick, you can Always learn something from somebody. :=) Was this done when you were at Adobe, or is this your first book outside of Adobe? Cheers Woody
glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) (10/03/90)
In article <1601@chinacat.Unicom.COM> woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) writes: >Was this done when you were at Adobe, or is this your first book outside >of Adobe? This is/was my first book outside of Adobe. I'm actually not sure how I feel about thinking of it as a "first" book, since that means I might have to write another one. Writing a book can be a lot of work, and I don't look forward to another one in the immediate future, but I guess I did enjoy the project :-) Glenn -- Glenn Reid RightBrain Software glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us PostScript/NeXT developers ..{adobe,next}!heaven!glenn 415-851-1785
woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) (10/04/90)
In article <286@heaven.woodside.ca.us>, glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) writes: > >Was this done when you were at Adobe, or is this your first book outside > >of Adobe? > > This is/was my first book outside of Adobe. I'm actually not sure how I > feel about thinking of it as a "first" book, since that means I might hav Well some people struggle all thier lives to get a book published, so count yourself lucky. Yep it is hard work, but the steady (hopefully) royalty checks sure do help. :) Cheers Woody
zvr@krino.ntua.gr (Alexios Zavras) (10/05/90)
In article <1601@chinacat.Unicom.COM>, woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) writes: |> In article <283@heaven.woodside.ca.us>, glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) writes: |> > In addition to the other suggestions that Henry provided, I can't |> > resist a plug for my forthcoming book from Addison-Wesley, |> > "Thinking in PostScript". If you're a C programmer who knows little |> > Sorry about the plug. |> > Is this the same book that was planned to be published under the title of ``The Art of PostScript Programming'' ? I have seen a couple of Addison-Wesley catalogs and the book appears sometimes as ``Thinking in PostScript'' and sometimes as ``The Art...''. Was this a temporary title that was abandoned or what ? Curious people want to know... -- zvr -- +---------------------------+ Alexios Zavras (-zvr-) | H eytyxia den exei enoxes | zvr@ntua.gr +-----------------------zvr-+ zvr@theseas.ntua.gr "Il faut vivre comme on pense, sinon tot ou tard, on finit par penser comme on a vecu"
glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) (10/07/90)
In article <1213@theseas.ntua.gr> zvr@theseas.ntua.gr writes: | |> In article <283@heaven.woodside.ca.us>, glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) writes: |> > In addition to the other suggestions that Henry provided, I can't |> > resist a plug for my forthcoming book from Addison-Wesley, |> > "Thinking in PostScript". If you're a C programmer who knows little |> > Sorry about the plug. |> > | | Is this the same book that was planned to be published under the title |of ``The Art of PostScript Programming'' ? I have seen a couple of |Addison-Wesley catalogs and the book appears sometimes as ``Thinking |in PostScript'' and sometimes as ``The Art...''. | Was this a temporary title that was abandoned or what ? | |Curious people want to know... Yes, it's the same book. Addison-Wesley picked the title(s), and it changed somewhere along the way. The one that actually got published is "Thinking in PostScript". Since most books end up on the shelf and never read, I prefer "Thinking in PostScript"; it looks good on your shelf :-) A-W just sent me a copy of the cover of the book, which means that it's in the final stages. They said that I should get some books within a week or so, and that they should be in bookstores by the end of October or early November. The cover is mostly white, with a blue stripe across the top, and a lot of multiply-colored letters tumbling around on the cover (having little or nothing to do with what the book's about, naturally :-). It will be interesting to see how successful people are at coming up with a color to call it :-) Glenn -- Glenn Reid RightBrain Software glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us PostScript/NeXT developers ..{adobe,next}!heaven!glenn 415-851-1785
jgreely@morganucodon.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely) (10/07/90)
In article <289@heaven.woodside.ca.us> glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) writes: >The cover is mostly white, with a blue stripe across the top, and a lot >of multiply-colored letters tumbling around on the cover (having little >or nothing to do with what the book's about, naturally :-). It will be >interesting to see how successful people are at coming up with a color >to call it :-) Could be tricky, since there's already a white book about PostScript (although I haven't seen anyone mention it here). Personally, whatever I call it will be based on what colors are on the spine, since that's what will be visible on my shelf. From your description, it sounds like that will be "white". -- J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely)
woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) (10/07/90)
In article <289@heaven.woodside.ca.us>, glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) writes: > Yes, it's the same book. Addison-Wesley picked the title(s), and it > changed somewhere along the way. The one that actually got published > is "Thinking in PostScript". Since most books end up on the shelf > > The cover is mostly white, with a blue stripe across the top, and a lot > to call it :-) Sounds fairly trivial. Obviously the WHITE book 8=} since that one is not yet taken. or perhaps the B&W (blue and white). Anyway another book is most welcome. It irratates me that publishers pick titles. Authors should pick titles. Where do publishers get off on the idea that they can call the shots? I'd be pretty hardnosed about it if I were writing a book. I'd design the cover AND the title and reserve that right in the contract...It's bad enough that editors screw things up. Back in Oct of '81 I had an article published in BYTE magazine. I got the Galleys back, read through them, and discovered that some editor had changed the wording of some text. The result was that it was totaly wrong. Only when I threatened to withdraw the article, did they put it back the way it was supposed to. I was not about to have such a thing pulled on me. Cheers Woody > > Glenn > > > > > -- > Glenn Reid RightBrain Software > glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us PostScript/NeXT developers > ..{adobe,next}!heaven!glenn 415-851-1785
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (10/08/90)
In article <1611@chinacat.Unicom.COM> woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) writes: >... Where do publishers get >off on the idea that they can call the shots? I'd be pretty hardnosed >about it if I were writing a book. I'd design the cover AND the title >and reserve that right in the contract... You might have to bargain pretty hard for rights to do the cover design. Barring ultra-technical books -- the ones with the extremely bland covers and extremely high prices :-) -- the cover of a book is *advertising* for the book, and publishers understandably think sales will be higher if the cover is designed by a professional. Publishers "get off on the idea that they can call the shots" because it's *their* money paying for publication, and they are the ones who will be out of pocket if it sells 57 copies from a print run of 1000000000. My understanding is that even getting right of approval of cover design is generally impossible unless you have the clout of, say, a near-certain bestseller. Actually, there are publishers who give you complete control over it all. They're called "vanity presses". The gotcha is that you get to pay all the bills in advance, and selling the books afterward is your problem. -- Imagine life with OS/360 the standard | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology operating system. Now think about X. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry