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From: wiml@milton.u.washington.edu (William Lewis)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Correct a "dictfull error"
Message-ID: <6083@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 9 Aug 90 08:37:47 GMT
References: <7013@eos.UUCP> <1990Aug8.230407.5731@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Distribution: comp
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 26

>"dictfull; OffendingCommand: def"

  Well, as two people have posted this, I've seen no answers, and I know
at least this much postscript =8) I'll answer it here:

  The problem (as was guessed) is that the dictionary you are using is
full. The solution is pretty simple:

  <number> dict begin
    ... code
  end

  The "begin" and "end" must match. What this does is create a new 
dictionary (the dict command) with room for <number> definitions
in it, and then make it the current dictionary. When you "end", all
definitions in that dictionary are no longer available (although if
you stored the dictionary in a variable or somewhere before you
began, you could "begin" it again and get them back ... sort of
local variables and local functions...)  Encapsulated files or functions
that don't want to mess with their caller's environment often use this
so they don't overwrite things or pollute the namespace.


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