Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!munnari.oz.au!basser!metro!natmlab!ditsyda!macuni!mqccsunc!ifarqhar
From: ifarqhar@mqccsunc.mqcc.mq.OZ (Ian Farquhar 7420)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Bad PostScript
Keywords: kludgy, incompetent postscript programmers
Message-ID: <20@macuni.mqcc.mq.oz>
Date: 25 Nov 89 09:24:11 GMT
References: <12877@polya.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: news@macuni.mqcc.mq.oz
Reply-To: ifarqhar@mqccsunc.mq.oz (Ian Farquhar 7420)
Organization: Macquarie University, Sydney
Lines: 35

In article <12877@polya.Stanford.EDU> rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) writes:
>
>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.

I think that this is an excellent idea, as I often experience the same
problem.  I was recently horrified to discover that a very popular PC
word processor (whose name I am not willing to divulge in case of legal
retribution) produces code that would have to be deliberately badly
programmed.  For instance, for every word it prints, it recalculates the
width of the space, ignoring the fact that the width of the space does 
not change unless the font is changed.  This and other inadequacies mean
that my printer (a NEC LC-890) takes over a minute to print even the
simplest of pages!

Users should not have to put up with this sort of incompetent
programming, and if I were Adobe, I would be extremely concerned that
some users would put the blame on postscript, rather than at the feet of
the incompetent programmers where it belongs.  I am now faced with the
possibility of rewriting the printer driver for this program, and
something that nobody should have to do after spending $600 on any
program.  The availability of such a validating program would, at the
very least, allow the programmer to evaluate the efficiency of the code
they are producing.

Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed here are my own, and bear no
relation to any possessed by any other member of Macquarie University,
or of the policies of the university itself.

D