Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!adobe!greid
From: greid@adobe.com (Glenn Reid)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: dictfull??
Message-ID: <429@adobe.UUCP>
Date: 11 Feb 89 05:35:01 GMT
References: <4242@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <50250@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Sender: news@adobe.COM
Reply-To: greid@adobe.COM (Glenn Reid)
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View
Lines: 23

In article <50250@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> engelson@cs.yale.edu (Sean Engelson) writes:

>It is your "/fu 0 def"s that are filling up the dictionary.  You see,
>def creates a new binding, rather than setting a variable.  What you
>should do is create one binding somewhere, and use "/fu 0 store"
>instead.  If you want local bindings, do something like:

Although it is a good idea to create local dictionaries, it is not true
that "def" will fill up a dictionary.  It does not "create a new binding,"
it essentially just overwrites the old one.

A far more likely cause for a "dictfull" error is for something else to
accidentally leave a dictionary on the dictionary stack that has very
few entries left in it.  Look for a "begin" without a matching "end"
somewhere.  User-defined fonts are famous for this.  You might also put
in tests with "countdictstack" when entering and leaving various
procedures, issuing an error message if they don't match.

I haven't had a chance to look at the original posting yet; perhaps I
will notice something.

Glenn Reid
Adobe Systems