Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!julian!deepthot!zaphod
From: zaphod@deepthot.UUCP (millions of atoms of Lance)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Books for a Postscript beginner
Keywords: Holzman, Adobe, Postscript, beginner
Message-ID: <980@deepthot.UUCP>
Date: 5 Jan 88 00:13:52 GMT
References: <44@hrsw2.UUCP>
Reply-To: zaphod@deepthot.UUCP (millions of atoms of Lance)
Distribution: na
Organization: UWO CS, London Canada
Lines: 38
Posted: Mon Jan  4 19:13:52 1988

I've written a few postscript generators, fixed most of MicroSoft word (3.1),
created several fonts,letterheads and ALWAYS write in raw postscript when
I moonlight as a graphic designer (i know, big deal, but what I am trying
to get across is that I know postscript inside and out and that the following
represent the comments of a committed postscript hack, dablers may not agree)

In article <44@hrsw2.UUCP> bakken@hrsw2.UUCP writes:
>I saw a book "Understanding Postscript Programming" by David A. Holzgang
>(SYBEX: Alameda, CA 1987 - $22.95 at B Dalton).  It looked pretty good, and
This is a book to be avoided.  The main reason is that any of the interesting
commands are simple not mentioned.  "exitserver" is the first that pops to mind,
although there have been numerous times that I have gone to the book only
to toss it in a corner frustrated that my particular need was not mentioned.
The book (not surprisingly) is not with me so I cannot be more specific.
The second reason is that the contents tend to be very superficial, that is,
what the book does cover is not done in great depth.

>seems to be Adobe Systems' "Postscript Language (Tutorial and Cookbook, LRM)"
>(Addison Wesley 1985, ($16.95,$22.95) at B Dalton).  
Adobe has published the now-classic "red book" and "blue book" and these are
felt by myself to be the bibles of postscript programming.  Lots of icky 
details and loads of very nice programs.

Originally there was a 2 inch binder put out by (I beleive) QMS as an 
accompaniment to the PS-800.  This is a very complete reference and how
I learned postscript, but it was uphill work as the book's arrangement
and indexing is abysmyl.

-- 
humbly yours,  Lance Bailey 
               Univ. Western Ontario         |   Robart's Research Institute
               Dept. of Computer Science     |   Clinical Trials Unit
               Graduate Studies              |   PO Box 5015
               London, Canada                |   London, Canada
               N6A 5B7                       |   N6A 5K8

decvax!{utcs|utzoo|watmath}!deepthot!zaphod
		-or-  zaphod@deepthot.uucp