Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!ucbvax!INFORMATIK.MATHEMATIK.UNI-MAINZ.DE!Kapffer
From: Kapffer@INFORMATIK.MATHEMATIK.UNI-MAINZ.DE
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Printing GS Postscript Files on Another Machine
Message-ID: <9102281533.AA10699@Informatik.Mathematik.Uni-Mainz.DE>
Date: 28 Feb 91 15:33:38 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 28

[...]
>Line 5, starting at 25 21 50 53 2d 41 64 6f 62 65 is the %!PS-Adobe, but
>there are still zeros in lines 7 and 8 (but no more beyond line 8).  That
>means AppleWorks, the only editor I can find that will load the file
>without stopping at the first zero in line 2, will rewrite the corrected
>file to disk with #'s in place of several of the characters (zeros, 2's)
>in lines AFTER the %!PS-Adobe.  This won't print.  Text editors that don't
>change anything you don't tell them to change wont load the file in the
>first place (because of the zeros.)  I gather those zeros in lines 7-8
>aren't supposed to be there, but they are there in every file I've saved
>so far.  This is with system software 5.0.4, the Laserwriter driver renamed
>Foziedriver, and the file winding up as POSTSCRIPT.GS00 in the Drivers
>folder, as it is supposed to be.  What's going on?

The LaserWriter driver wants to include the name of the user in the
PostScript file (both in the header comment and somewhere a few lines later
so it will be included in the status message the LaserWriter can send to
another user waiting for the printer to become free), but the user name is
defined by the AppleTalk software and not available if it is not installed.
Therefore, the trash of some uninitialized variables will end up in the PS
file instead.
(The LaserWriter driver does this since the first version which forced us
to rename it before it could be used in a non-AT environment - does Apple
believe everybody has at least direct AT connectivity to the PS printer of
his choice ? [it's interesting to note in this context {still counting
parenthesis ?} that System 7.0 on the Mac makes the print-PS-to-file
feature official by adding a "destination" radio button group and a
SFPutFile dialog to the print dialog of the LaserWriter driver])