[comp.lang.postscript] ralpage-1.5.3.2 alpha release

jw@sics.se (Johan Widen) (09/16/90)

An alpha release of ralpage 1.5.3.2 is now available for anonymous ftp from
	sics.se (192.16.123.90)

ralpage is a PostScript previewer.  I didn't write it, Crispin Goswell did.

This is an *alpha* release. This means that there are known bugs in the
program that makes it unsuitable for production use. A better version will
be released in a short while. This alpha release is made available so that
other programmers can help me get it into shape for the real release.

A set of context diffs against the previous release will be produced for
the real release, but are not available for the alpha release.

Lack of features (patches are solicited):
	Does not handling postscript files produced on Macintosh.

	Does not understand Adobe type 1 fonts.

	The rotation argument of the setscreen operator is ignored.

	The save and restore operators are only partially implemented.

Known bugs:
	Characters from X Window fonts are often severely mispositioned.

	The stroke operator often produces to thin lines, or no line at all.

	I have only used the X Window driver. The other drivers are in an
	unknown state. I know that the Sunview driver has a problem with
	BitBlt's involving bitmaps that are not a multiple of 16 bits wide.

	Program 15 in the PostScript Cookbok (Filling an Area with a pattern)
	does not print correctly on an X display where BlackPixel == 0
	(i.e. an NCD X Window terminal). It does not work on a colour display
	either.

Features:
	Monochrome and colour X Window support. Has been tested on
		monochrome sun-4/60
		colour cgfour sun-3/60
		NCD-16 X Window terminal

	Can display postscript files generated from TeX (dvips) and troff.
--
Johan Widen
SICS, PO Box 1263, S-164 28 KISTA, SWEDEN	Internet: jw@sics.se
Tel: +46 8 752 15 32	Ttx: 812 61 54 SICS S	Fax: +46 8 751 72 30

jw@sics.se (Johan Widen) (09/17/90)

In the release notes I said that there was a problem with the character
positioning when displaying X Window fonts. The following patch appears to
fix this. I have also put the patch on our ftp area, in a separate file.

There is a second problem with the X Window fonts. The problem is that the
encoding of the X Window fonts is not the same as the encoding of the
postscript fonts. Furthermore, there are characters in the postscript fonts
that are not in the X Window fonts and vice versa. What would be a good way
of dealing with this?

*** /tmp/,RCSt1a06364	Sun Sep 16 23:28:41 1990
--- xcache.c	Sun Sep 16 23:16:43 1990
***************
*** 38,43 ****
--- 38,44 ----
   	FontInfoRec theFont;
   	CharInfoRec theCharInfo [256];
   	int nglyphs, i, fd;
+ 	float save_tx, save_ty;
   	Vector sidev, exv, met, GetMetrics ();
   	Object metricsDict;
   	extern Object Metrics, FontBBox;
***************
*** 85,90 ****
--- 86,94 ----
   	 }
  	VOID fclose (fp);
  	
+ 	save_tx = gstate->CTM.tx;
+ 	save_ty = gstate->CTM.ty;
+ 
   	for (i = theFont.firstCol; i <= theFont.lastCol; i++)
   	 {
   	 	struct hardware *newdev;
***************
*** 113,118 ****
--- 117,124 ----
   	 			NewDevicePoint (width, height),
   	 			ROP_SOURCE);
   	 	DestroyHardware (newdev);
+ 		gstate->CTM.tx = save_tx;
+ 		gstate->CTM.ty = save_ty;
   	 }
   	Free (bits);
   	VOID GRestore ();
--
Johan Widen
SICS, PO Box 1263, S-164 28 KISTA, SWEDEN	Internet: jw@sics.se
Tel: +46 8 752 15 32	Ttx: 812 61 54 SICS S	Fax: +46 8 751 72 30