Xref: utzoo comp.lang.postscript:3274 comp.text:5633
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!shelby!polya!rokicki
From: rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript,comp.text
Subject: Bad PostScript
Message-ID: <12877@polya.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 23 Nov 89 01:46:45 GMT
Followup-To: comp.lang.postscript
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Lines: 31

After seeing yet another sample of *lousy* PostScript generated by an
application (this one Windows Designer), I'm very upset.  This particular
application makes *no* effort to comply with any structuring conventions.
It even generates an unprotected call to `a4'.

I get numerous bug reports---90% of the distill down to problems with the
application generating the PostScript.

What I propose is that Adobe (or some enlightened soul) attempt to write
a `validation' program.  This simple C program would read in a PostScript
graphic following the structuring conventions and generate another, with
the included graphic scaled and rotated to perhaps halfsize in the middle
of the page.  The output PostScript would also have drawn some things
before and after the included graphics.  And this C program would parse
and check the input graphic appropriately.

Then, if an Application claimed to generate `PostScript', especially for
potential inclusion in other programs, its generated output should be
capable of being sucessfully filtered and scaled by the above C program.

This C program should be fairly simple and thus portable, and would be
a tremendous boon to those attempting to support products that include
PostScript images; by simply running the program above with a troublesome
graphic, the fault could be quickly isolated.

In addition, this C program could serve as the basis for an application's
PostScript importing code, showing things done correctly.

I'm sick of dealing with Adobe's poorly written and changing structuring
conventions, and even more so with applications that don't make even an
effort to comply.  Comments or thoughts?