Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mcnc!rock.concert.net!news
From: hayes@jazz.concert.net (Brian Hayes - Sigma Xi)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: PS to Adobe Illustrator?
Message-ID: <1991Mar10.175905.9482@rock.concert.net>
Date: 10 Mar 91 17:59:05 GMT
Sender: news@rock.concert.net
Organization: Center for Communications, MCNC; RTP, NC
Lines: 44


 
 
Has anyone ever seen a program to convert "generic" 
Postscript into the subset language recognized by Adobe 
Illustrator or Aldus Freehand?
 
In my own work, when I create an algorithmically 
generated graphic, I usually write a program that 
produces Illustrator commands rather than ordinary 
Postscript, so that I can view and fiddle with the image 
on screen. But with Postscript code that comes from 
another source--say a graph created by Mathematica--the 
document can't be opened in Illustrator. (I know there 
are Postscript *viewers* for various kinds of hardware, 
but a viewer doesn't let you manipulate an image the way 
a drawing program does.)
 
I'm not at all sure how difficult the conversion would 
be. For simple graphics commands the translation into 
Illustrator syntax is trivial:
 
     moveto   ==>  m
     lineto   ==>  l
     curveto  ==>  c
     fill     ==>  F
 
     etc.
 
Where things get sticky is in any Postscript program that 
defines and invokes procedures. What's needed is a 
partial evaluation, so that the effect of executing the 
procedure is expressed in those same simple commands 
(such as m, l, c and F). Partial evaluation is definitely 
not trivial.
 
Creating a translator is a project that I might 
toy with myself, but my chances of success are slight, 
and the world would be better off if someone else were to 
undertake the project. Or perhaps someone has done it 
already?
 
Brian Hayes
hayes@concert.net