cortesi@infmx.UUCP (David Cortesi) (03/14/90)
Recently several postings have asked for information on PostScript(tm) previewers. I have recently discovered one, have ordered it but not yet tried it. It is "PostShow," a PostScript development environment from Lincoln & Company 29 Domino Drive Concord, MA 01742 508-369-1441 or 800-223-7469 The following is based on a phone conversation with a sales rep at the company. The product includes an interactive PS interpreter so you can type PS statements and see the output on the screen of your Macintosh. The preview window can be zoomed and scrolled. You can also have windows showing the current graphics state and the state of the execution stack, and watch these things change as statements are executed. There is a cursor location tool so you can point in the preview window and see a readout of the x-y location of any point. There is a program editor that allows you to include PS code written by other applications. The product uses Type 3 fonts supplied by the company for screen output; these are substituted for the standard fonts automatically during preview. Character size and shape is claimed to be indistinguishable from Adobe's at the 72dpi resolution of the screen. Of course the real fonts will be used when you send the code to the printer. The product does not, repeat not, require an attached printer; it has its own PS interpreter. This is good in that you can develop away from a printer; potentially risky in that you are relying on the accuracy of their interpretation of the language. Price is $224.95 with the basic 13 fonts, or $294.95 with the 35 fonts needed for LW+ compatibility. They support the Mac SE and up but recommend 2 megs of RAM if you use multifinder. I didn't ask about big screen or color support. Again, the above is from my notes of a phone conversation with a sales rep. If you are interested, you should call the company and ask about the details that interest you. /////// / David Cortesi /////// cortesi@infmx.uu.net ////// ////// // // I ordered this product for // //// / /// Informix Software // home use; my employer has // /// / //// 4100 Bohannon Drive // no opinions on any of these // // / ///// Menlo Park, CA 94025 // topics. // / //////// (415) 926-6300 //// ...pyramid!infmx!cortesi /////
baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten) (03/17/90)
In article <3588@infmx.UUCP>, cortesi@infmx (David Cortesi) writes: >Recently several postings have asked for information on PostScript(tm) >previewers. I have recently discovered one, have ordered it but not >yet tried it. It is "PostShow," a PostScript development environment from > Lincoln & Company > 29 Domino Drive > Concord, MA 01742 > 508-369-1441 or 800-223-7469 I've been using it for a while and am generally happy with it. But note that you don't get any sort of serious debugging tools -- for that, you should get LaserTalk. Of course, you need a LaserWriter to make use of it, which was a serious disadvantage for me... Other limitations: o You can only edit one file at a time. However, you can select and execute parts of the file, or execute the whole file. o Characters look pretty bad on the screen; it's sure not ATM. o It doesn't work with ATM, so even if you have some lovely Adobe fonts lying around you can't use them. o It's tolerable on a Plus (which is what I have), but not for any kind of lengthy debugging. o No tools to let you easily or graphicallly manipulate dictionaries. o There's no good way to handle multiple page documents. They give you a hokey workaround, but basically you get to see only the last page of your document. o It's Multifinder tolerant, but that's all. It won't work in the background, and you can't switch out of it when it's thinking (although you can abort the interpreter at any point). On the other hand: o You can preview Mac-generated PostScript (from CMD-F); on a Plus it takes about 2.5 minutes to display a page. Considering it takes our print spooler at work about 1.5 minutes to shove a job at our printer, I'm reasonably happy. I occasionally go and munge the output of Nisus to get background graphics into the background (long story), and PostShow is a good way to make sure I haven't screwed things up. o It runs in 1 meg, though if that's *all* you have you may have to dump some INITs. o I find it very satisfactory for simple programming and debugging. It might be very much less so if I were fooling with low-level stuff, or manipulating dictionaries, etc. So given that it costs just a little over $200 and doesn't require a printer, I think it's a good deal, especially if you don't generally write long, complicated PostScript programs. Of course, the faster your machine, the better its response. As it is, I don't find myself drumming my fingers in frustration all the time, but on the other hand it certainly isn't an NTX. If people would like more details, I'd be happy to respond by email. -- Steve Baumgarten | "New York... when civilization falls apart, Davis Polk & Wardwell | remember, we were way ahead of you." baumgart@esquire.dpw.com | cmcl2!esquire!baumgart | - David Letterman