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agreed that PostScript can be (and do) funny stuff.
One thing could lead to some confusion about the plain ASCII nature of
PostScript. As PostScript is a programming language, it is possible to
create a data compressor. The result of the compression is binary data, and
may look a bit strange to the unused eye.
Well, "horribly expensive" may be a bit exagerrated. Thomas Merz' books are
not cheap, that is true, but they are worth every Pfennig/penny ... and
more <g>.
Just my Zweiräppler...
Max Wyss
PRODOK Engineering AG
Technical documentation and translations, Electronic Publishing
CH-8906 Bonstetten, Switzerland
>Sorry to quibble, Barry, but I'm afraid that others on the list might not
>catch this.
>
>PostScript isn't compiled at all, neither at nor coming to the printer. In
>point of fact, it's ASCII text that can be edited in any good programming
>editor (use a programming editor to handle the ungodly number of lines).
>Many advanced PDF writers do this to embed special PDFMark commands. It's
>interpreted just like RTF is. RTF is also just ASCII text that can be edited
>separately from a standard Windows tool.
>
>You may be thinking of early Adobe PS fonts, which weren't compiled, but
>encrypted. You may also be thinking of PDF, which isn't compiled so much as
>encoded, but it's definitely not editable.
>
>PostScript can be funny stuff for those unused to its quirks. For starters,
>it's not built for display, but for printing, making it necessary to use
>Adobe Type Manager to properly display many PS fonts, at least before ATM
>was incorporated into so many applications. And yes, several companies
>balked at paying Adobe to license the Adobe PostScript interpreter, often
>called a "RIP", and wrote their own, often to their users' chagrin when
>their PS files didn't print correctly.
>
>For much more background, I recommend Thomas Mertz' horribly expensive but
>unmatched books on PS and PDF.
>
>Tim Altom
>Adobe Certified Expert, Acrobat
>Simply Written, Inc.
>317.899.5882
>http://www.simplywritten.com
>Creators of the Clustar Method for task-based documentation
