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From: jj1h+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joseph Jackson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Data dictionary and File on LPS20
Message-ID: <4bp61Ee00VQsM3JkgT@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 6 Mar 91 03:21:52 GMT
References: <13024@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Organization: Academic Computing, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 35
In-Reply-To: <13024@helios.TAMU.EDU>

After reading some of DEC's PostScript, I've noticed that they are very
good about creating their own dictionary before defining a bunch of new
entries.  This is a good idea for anyone generating PostScript since you
never can be sure how much room is going to be left in the default user
dictionary when your code runs.

On my Apple LaserWriter, the default user dictionary (userdict) has a
maximum size of 200 entries with only 25 things being defined by the
system in an idle state.  DEC's printers may have a smaller userdict or
may have more things already defined in it.  Print this to get the
numbers for your printer:

%!
72 720 moveto
/Times-Roman findfont 14 scalefont setfont
(Max length: ) show 
userdict maxlength 10 string cvs show
(      Current number of entries: ) show
userdict length 10 string cvs show
showpage

Since you're getting a "dictionary full" operator, I'd guess that your
application's PostScript code is doing its work in userdict and that the
LPS20 has less space available there than does a LaserWriter.  If that's
turns out to be the problem, perhaps you can modify your application so
that it emits "200 dictionary begin" and "end" at the correct points to
create and discard the needed work space.

Joe Jackson
Distributed Workstation Services
Carnegie Mellon University

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