Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!netsys!lll-winken!snll-arpagw!paolucci
From: paolucci@snll-arpagw.UUCP (Sam Paolucci)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: PS libraries
Message-ID: <98@snll-arpagw.UUCP>
Date: 26 Apr 89 01:37:58 GMT
References: <2994@daisy.UUCP> <775@adobe.UUCP> <8751@polya.Stanford.EDU> <783@adobe.UUCP>
Reply-To: paolucci@snll-arpagw.UUCP (Sam Paolucci)
Organization: Sandia National Labs, Livermore, CA
Lines: 39

In article <783@adobe.UUCP> greid@adobe.COM (Glenn Reid) writes:
->If you are going to the
->trouble to write a preprocessor that can syntactically rearrange pages
->based on a sophisticated parser, I won't buy the argument that you
->can't add ^D at the end when you send it to the printer.
->
->The "proper spooling software" can consist of a two-line batch file
->that tacks an end-of-file indication at the end of each job.  If you
->don't do this, page reversal will be the least of your problems.
->Anything printed that contains "exitserver" will cause the printer to
->use up memory indefinitely until it blows up, unless you terminate the
->job with an end-of-file.
->
->Anyway, forgive my impatience with the ^D issue.  It is a plague on
->portability and on the world.

Let's see.  Say I have a PostScript printer attached to the serial port
of my PC.  And say that I can just copy the file directly to the serial
device.  Also, say that I can redirect the output of an application
that outputs PostScript to either a file or the serial device directly.

If the application does not append a ^D to the end of the output, and
the output is redirected to the serial device, then we have no end of
file.  Also if the output is redirected to a file, and later the PC
user decides to copy the file directly to the serial device, again we
have no end of file.

Thus it appears to me that in a PC world where access to the serial
device is easy and transparent, the only option is for the application
program to append a ^D to the end of the PostScript output.  This
guarantees that the file will be handled properly whether it is
redirected to the serial device, or later copied to it.


-- 
					-+= SAM =+-
"the best things in life are free"

				ARPA: paolucci@snll-arpagw.llnl.gov