tower@AI.MIT.EDU (Leonard H. Tower Jr.) (09/13/90)
Return-Path: <karl@ai.mit.edu>
From: karl@ai.mit.edu (Karl Berry)
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 90 15:08:09 EDT
To: bug-ghostscript
Subject: Ghostscript 2.0 announcement
(I (Karl Berry, karl@cs.umb.edu) am posting this message for
Peter Deutsch (addresses below), the principal author of Ghostscript,
since Peter is out of town for a few days.)
We are happy to announce the availability of Ghostscript release 2.0.
Special thanks are due to Karl Berry and Kathy Hargreaves, who
created the fonts that are included in this release, as well as to
many other users who assisted in testing and debugging. This release
includes many improvements and new features, the most significant
being:
- A real set of fonts, based on the X11 BDF fonts and other
bitmap fonts, and the Hershey fonts;
- Full support for Adobe Type 1 fonts (currently ignoring the
hints);
- Drivers for the SunView window system and the Borland
Graphics Interface, in addition to previously released drivers for X
Windows and for EGA-compatible display systems;
- Drivers for Epson, DeskJet, and LaserJet printers;
- The ability to dump out a bitmap (or 8- or 24-bit color
pixmap) of the rendered result;
- The ability to include multiple devices in a single
executable, and switch between them;
- The ability to search through multiple directories for
library files.
These are just the highlights: see README, readme.doc, and
history.doc in the fileset for more details. Many, many bugs have
also been fixed.
The EGA, BGI, X Windows, and Epson drivers are "supported" in the
same sense as the non-driver code, namely, that we (Aladdin
Enterprises) will do our best to diagnose and fix reported problems;
the other drivers either were contributed by users, or rely on
hardware not accessible to us, so we will probably refer problems to
helpful users for resolution.
The fileset for Ghostscript release 2.0 is currently available on
prep.ai.mit.edu, in the directory pub/gnu. The files are:
ghostscript-2.0.tar.Z - the main sources
ghostscript-2.0fonts.tar.Z - fonts other than the Hershey fonts
ghostscript-2.0hershey.tar.Z - the Hershey fonts
gs_2_0.exe - a precompiled MS-DOS executable
MS-DOS users should be aware that the source files use the Unix
line-end convention (\n), rather than the MS-DOS convention (\r\n).
Unfortunately, a working PaintJet driver didn't quite make it into
this release. A user-contributed working PaintJet driver exists, but
there wasn't time to integrate it into the release. I've asked the
author of the PaintJet driver to bring it up to date with the
released fileset. Meanwhile, the unintegrated code is on the same
directory in
ghostscript-2.0paintjet.tar.Z
If you have an urgent need for this driver, you may wish to try your
hand at integrating it yourself: I would appreciate it if you would
feed the result back to me, since it makes it more likely that it
will be integrated into a distribution in the near future. Be aware
that the diffs in this file do *not* match the sources in
ghostscript-2.0.tar.Z.
I'm sure there are still bugs in this release, since Ghostscript is a
large program and not easy to test thoroughly. Don't hesitate to
send bug reports (or glowing reviews :-)) to
bug-ghostscript@prep.ai.mit.edu.
I hope the interval of over a year since the last release of
Ghostscript (1.3) will turn out to have been an unfortunate anomaly;
I hope to be able to go back to the schedule of a release every six
to eight months (if warranted). I would be very interested in
hearing suggestions about what to put into release 2.1 (targeted for
March or April next year), once users have had some experience with
2.0. Here is my current tentative list of projects for 2.1:
- Integrate the PaintJet driver.
- Finish upgrading the memory manager (both save/restore and
garbage collection are partially implemented).
- Depending on the release date of the revised Red Book,
implement some or all of Level II P*stScr*pt (CMYK color and the new
color operators have specifically been suggested).
Other projects that have been suggested include providing an internal
band list interface that would make it possible for Ghostscript to
drive high-resolution printers; improving performance by uploading
fonts to the X server or the LaserJet font memory; building a more
useful previewer that could provide multi-page browsing or zooming.
Let me hear from you.
L. Peter Deutsch :: Aladdin Enterprises :: P.O. box 60264, Palo Alto, CA 94306
ghost@aladdin.com | {uunet,sun,decwrl}!parcplace!aladdin!ghost | (415)329-0264
"Implementation is the sincerest form of flattery."bradlee@cg-atla.agfa.com (Rob Bradlee) (09/14/90)
>We are happy to announce the availability of Ghostscript release 2.0. >The fileset for Ghostscript release 2.0 is currently available on >prep.ai.mit.edu, in the directory pub/gnu. The files are: I would really like to obtain GhostSript, but I don't have anonymous ftp capability. If someone could mail me the files I would be very grateful. Perhaps there is some favor I could do you in return. Thanks in advance. Rob -- Rob Bradlee w:(508)-658-5600 X5153 h:(617)-944-5595 AGFA Compugraphic Division. ...!{decvax,samsung}!cg-atla!bradlee 200 Ballardvale St. bradlee@cg-atla.agfa.com Wilmington, Mass. 01887 The Nordic Way: Ski till it hurts!