bakken@hrsw2.UUCP (David E. Bakken) (01/01/88)
I am going to be learning Postscript soon and am wondering what books or references I will need. I have programmed in many languages and will be working on PD and shareware products and similar projects. I will NOT be using it at work in the forseeable future. I saw a book "Understanding Postscript Programming" by David A. Holzgang (SYBEX: Alameda, CA 1987 - $22.95 at B Dalton). It looked pretty good, and I wonder if this and a reference card will do me. The other choice seems to be Adobe Systems' "Postscript Language (Tutorial and Cookbook, LRM)" (Addison Wesley 1985, ($16.95,$22.95) at B Dalton). Has Postscript changed since the 1985 publication of the Adobe books? (I will get NeWS documentation If I get the chance to use it). Is Adobe working on a newer edition that will hit the streets the day after I buy their books? Any advice on what I will need/desire would be appreciated, especially if any interests/ties to the authors or publishers are noted. Thanks! -- Dave Bakken Boeing Commercial Airplane Company uw-beaver!apcisea!tahoma!hrsw2!bakken (206) 234-2039 (generic) disclaimer: these views are my own, not my employers.
zaphod@deepthot.UUCP (millions of atoms of Lance) (01/05/88)
I've written a few postscript generators, fixed most of MicroSoft word (3.1), created several fonts,letterheads and ALWAYS write in raw postscript when I moonlight as a graphic designer (i know, big deal, but what I am trying to get across is that I know postscript inside and out and that the following represent the comments of a committed postscript hack, dablers may not agree) In article <44@hrsw2.UUCP> bakken@hrsw2.UUCP writes: >I saw a book "Understanding Postscript Programming" by David A. Holzgang >(SYBEX: Alameda, CA 1987 - $22.95 at B Dalton). It looked pretty good, and This is a book to be avoided. The main reason is that any of the interesting commands are simple not mentioned. "exitserver" is the first that pops to mind, although there have been numerous times that I have gone to the book only to toss it in a corner frustrated that my particular need was not mentioned. The book (not surprisingly) is not with me so I cannot be more specific. The second reason is that the contents tend to be very superficial, that is, what the book does cover is not done in great depth. >seems to be Adobe Systems' "Postscript Language (Tutorial and Cookbook, LRM)" >(Addison Wesley 1985, ($16.95,$22.95) at B Dalton). Adobe has published the now-classic "red book" and "blue book" and these are felt by myself to be the bibles of postscript programming. Lots of icky details and loads of very nice programs. Originally there was a 2 inch binder put out by (I beleive) QMS as an accompaniment to the PS-800. This is a very complete reference and how I learned postscript, but it was uphill work as the book's arrangement and indexing is abysmyl. -- humbly yours, Lance Bailey Univ. Western Ontario | Robart's Research Institute Dept. of Computer Science | Clinical Trials Unit Graduate Studies | PO Box 5015 London, Canada | London, Canada N6A 5B7 | N6A 5K8 decvax!{utcs|utzoo|watmath}!deepthot!zaphod -or- zaphod@deepthot.uucp