mbparker@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (02/06/88)
I've used Scribe, TeX, and LaTeX text formatting packages, all of which output to postscript. But after learning about what a powerful and elegant programming language postscript is, I started wondering... Why not have a text (and even graphics) formatter directly in postscript?! No preprocessing. You could send your document directly to the printer. You wouldn't have to wait for Scribe (no matter how slow postscript is, it couldn't be slower than Scribe!). And you would have total control of your document, and a full programming language at your disposal! I'm excited about the idea. Does anybody know if something like it has already been done before? If it hasn't, why not? Seems like a unique possibility! Anybody interested? Your thoughts, references, and ideas would be greatly appreciated. Mike Parker, MIT '89 mbparker@athena.mit.edu 617-225-6303
sas1@sphinx.uchicago.edu (Stuart Schmukler) (02/08/88)
In article <8802060615.AA20361@M66-080-5.MIT.EDU> mbparker@ATHENA.MIT.EDU writes: >Why not have a text (and even graphics) formatter directly in postscript?! >... >I'm excited about the idea. Does anybody know if something like it >has already been done before? If it hasn't, why not? Seems like >a unique possibility! These was a set of programs posted awhile ago called 'txttops' that are an early attempt at a formatter on the printer. As its author jb@csustan.UUCP [my quess at the address] states: It is quite limited but still handy for some things. However it is currently written for MS-DOS, when I tried it on an IRIS system V machine it did not seem to generate postscript that my printer liked. So, it needs work. SaS
uconray@cisunx.UUCP (Fox) (02/08/88)
In article <8802060615.AA20361@M66-080-5.MIT.EDU> mbparker@ATHENA.MIT.EDU writes: > >Why not have a text (and even graphics) formatter directly in postscript?! >I'm excited about the idea. Does anybody know if something like it >has already been done before? If it hasn't, why not? Seems like >a unique possibility! > I don't know exactly what you are aiming for, but there was once a simple text formatter which takes a regular text file (with troff- look-alike .commands) and concat to it a pre-written postscript definitions....it just appends the text file at the end and the whole thing can be sent to the printer directly. It was called txtopt or something like that. If the author is reading this, he probably will respond to it now. Ray {allegra | cadre}!pitt!cisunx!uconray
lawrence@bbn.COM (Gabriel Lawrence) (02/09/88)
In article <8802060615.AA20361@M66-080-5.MIT.EDU> mbparker@ATHENA.MIT.EDU writes: > >I've used Scribe, TeX, and LaTeX text formatting packages, all of >which output to postscript. But after learning about what a powerful >and elegant programming language postscript is, I started wondering... > >Why not have a text (and even graphics) formatter directly in postscript?! >... >Your thoughts, references, and ideas would be greatly appreciated. >... I'm a little confused as to precisely what it is you are submitting for comptemplation. Your subject heading would indicate that your interest lies in harnessing the power of PostScript as a programming language. This is a viable/interesting idea - so far as I know, the only existing mechanisms for parsing PostScript are run-time interpreters. Just don't ask me to support your code at some future date (as I general rule, I'll only support my own dialects of Forth and PostScript :-)! The text of your article then describes a text/graphic package which manipulate images using PostScript as a native document description language. This, is not a new idea. Two packages which run on the Mac ("Adobe Illustrator" and "Freehand") use PostScript as both the final output text and as the screen driver/PostScript previewer. In addition, the soon-to-be-released 68030 based PC from NeXT (Steve Jobs' new company) features PostScript as it's native U*ix display driver. If I'm missing the point of your idea, please clarify. =Gabriel Lawrence= =BBN Communications=
lee@uhccux.UUCP (Greg Lee) (02/13/88)
From article <6686@ccv.bbn.COM>, by lawrence@bbn.COM (Gabriel Lawrence): > In article <8802060615.AA20361@M66-080-5.MIT.EDU> mbparker@ATHENA.MIT.EDU writes: > ... > in harnessing the power of PostScript as a programming language. This is > a viable/interesting idea - so far as I know, the only existing mechanisms for > parsing PostScript are run-time interpreters. Just don't ask me to support PS code enclosed in braces is specified as compiled. That might mean pseudo-compilation or compilation to machine code. I wrote a subset implementation for PS, to be found in comp.sources.amiga, which compiles to machine code. So the remark about interpreters needs qualification. Greg, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu