shore@epiwrl.EPI.COM (John Shore) (05/20/88)
I need an ASCII to postscript filter (for an Apple LW on a Sun) with the
following characteristics (asterisk means desirable but not a must):
- does simple pagination
- allows global choice of font and size
- works with standard I/O
- page headers (*)
- landscape mode (*)
This is a subset of enscript (part of the Transcript package). Indeed,
I would like to use enscript, and (gosh) I'm willing to pay for it,
but Adobe won't sell it separately from Transcript. I don't need the
rest of Transcript's programs, and I can't afford the whole package.
A couple of hundred dollars is what I had in mind.
I have tried a couple of the programs I've seen on the net, but they
have not been adequate. Some assume the presence of files that I don't
have. Others do the job by inserting a Postscript program in front of the
ASCII -- the idea is that the program eats the ASCII and prints it.
That's OK, but I have never been able to make things work with lpr
properly so that the next Postscript job doesn't get eaten and printed
as well (yes I've tried to get lpr to transmit ^D at the end of each
job via /etc/printcap, but I haven't succeeded).
Several people have told me that there's no decent program on the
market because there are too many free programs floating around that
almost do it right. So here I am, ready to pay, but nothing to buy.
If anyone knows of a vendor that has a suitable program, I would appreciate
hearing about it. If anyone has a decent program that's in the public
domain, I would appreciate getting it. If you have a program you consider
"shareware" (I gather this term is being used when voluntary payments
are encouraged), I would be happy to contribute something for any such
program I end up using.
Thanks in advance.
js
- John Shore shore@wrl.EPI.COM
...uunet!wrl.epi.com!shoremaj1@sphinx.uchicago.edu (Major Robinson jr.) (05/24/88)
In article <2221@epiwrl.EPI.COM> shore@epiwrl.EPI.COM (John Shore) writes: >I need an ASCII to postscript filter (for an Apple LW on a Sun) with the > >- John Shore shore@wrl.EPI.COM > ...uunet!wrl.epi.com!shore I, too, am very interested in an ASCII to Postcript filter. Please post information or email to me, too. Major Robinson -- ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!maj1 maj1@sphinx.uchicago.edu
evan@csli.STANFORD.EDU (Evan Kirshenbaum) (05/25/88)
In article <2221@epiwrl.EPI.COM> shore@epiwrl.EPI.COM (John Shore) writes: > >I need an ASCII to postscript filter (for an Apple LW on a Sun) with the >following characteristics (asterisk means desirable but not a must): > > - does simple pagination > - allows global choice of font and size > - works with standard I/O > - page headers (*) > - landscape mode (*) > >This is a subset of enscript (part of the Transcript package). Indeed, >I would like to use enscript, and (gosh) I'm willing to pay for it, >but Adobe won't sell it separately from Transcript. I don't need the >rest of Transcript's programs, and I can't afford the whole package. >A couple of hundred dollars is what I had in mind. > >Several people have told me that there's no decent program on the >market because there are too many free programs floating around that >almost do it right. So here I am, ready to pay, but nothing to buy. > > >- John Shore shore@wrl.EPI.COM > ...uunet!wrl.epi.com!shore Well, I've written a free program that almost does it right. It doesn't allow you to change the font/size, and there is a slight problem with long filenames in the headers overlapping the print date (which I'm going to fix in the next day or so), but the output looks pretty good. I've used it from several different machines running Unix (including a Sun), and never had it bomb. I was planning on adding a couple of features like font selection and header format selection soon, but if anybody would like to try it as it is, I'd be willing to send them a copy. If there's enough interest, I'll post it. (It's about 2.5k, mostly a PostScript prologue.) --- Evan Kirshenbaum Stanford University evan@csli.Stanford.EDU ...!ucbvax!csli.stanford.edu!evan If you think my opinions represent this university, you haven't been on campus recently!
woolstar@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (John D Woolverton) (05/28/88)
>>I need an ASCII to postscript filter (for an Apple LW on a Sun) with the >following characteristics (asterisk means desirable but not a must): >> > - does simple pagination >> - allows global choice of font and size > - works with standard I/O >> - page headers (*) > - landscape mode (*) Possibly the reason that no one sells this is that it's not that tough of a programming job. (The documentation would take longer than the programming :-) I wrote a very simple version in vanilia C that compiled on everything I've tried so far (Vax/PC/HP...) Send me mail for a copy, or perhapse I'll post the program (about a page.) John d Woolverton (Just another student at Caltech) woolstar@csvax.caltech.edu -- -------------- John D Woolverton "Yes it's true..." jdw@tybalt.caltech.edu woolstar@csvax.caltech.edu