Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!sgi!shinobu!odin!ramoth.esd.sgi.com!msc
From: msc@ramoth.esd.sgi.com (Mark Callow)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re:  color postscript and psview
Message-ID: <1991Feb20.184856.22002@odin.corp.sgi.com>
Date: 20 Feb 91 18:48:56 GMT
References: <9102191238.AA28006@aero36.larc.nasa.gov> <1991Feb19.203014.1069@odin.corp.sgi.com> <1991Feb20.152008.7597@cid.aes.doe.CA>
Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News)
Reply-To: msc@sgi.com
Organization: Silicon Graphics Inc., Entry Systems Division
Lines: 34

In article <1991Feb20.152008.7597@cid.aes.doe.CA>, aspgpas@cidsv01.cid.aes.doe.CA (Peter Silva) writes:
|> 
|> Excuse moi,  but the only time I REALLY NEED postscript is when I want to 
|> display some image that was, for example, created on a mac.  Invariably, when
|> I invoke psview on the image, the window manager dies, and I must reset the
|> station.  Partial support is WORSE than none at all,  how are we supposed to 
|> tell which .eps files will crash it and which won't ?  And further, why does
|> it kill the window manager at all?
|> 

I fixed all known (to me and our bug database) causes of window server crashes
before IRIX 3.3.2 was released. Therefore you are either running an earlier
software release or you have found a new bug which you haven't reported.

PostScript files from the Mac. are a particular problem. Various laserprep
files are used and most Mac. documents won't print without the correct
laserprep file.  To compound the problem many laserprep files use obscure
PostScript features and strange workarounds to bugs in the early Laserwriters.
For example, the most common laserprep file I have seen wants to get the
CharString (the PostScript code fragment describing the character) for the
space character.  Since NeWS doesn't have PostScript fonts it is unable to
deliver this CharString. The laserprep file does nothing with the "space"
CharString.
 
Most of the problems will be gone in IRIX 4.0 when we move to
Display PostScript. Some of the problems will still be with us though
because there is a lot of software out there that assumes it is talking
to a laserwriter. Adobe yanked Appendix D (covering the Laserwriter specific
features) from recent editions of the Red Book in an attempt to alleviate
the problems.
-- 
From the TARDIS of Mark Callow
msc@ramoth.sgi.com, ...{ames,decwrl}!sgi!msc
"Spirits of genius are always opposed by mediocre minds" - Albert Einstein


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