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From: cliff@ficc.uu.net (cliff click)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: PostScript -> DVI or anything else
Summary: Postscript -> anything
Message-ID: <4054@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 2 May 89 12:34:53 GMT
References: <808@sunkisd.CS.Concordia.CA>
Organization: Ferranti International Controls
Lines: 28

In article <808@sunkisd.CS.Concordia.CA>, kiron@db9.CS.Concordia.CA (Kiron Bondale) writes:
> 
>I have a PostScript file, that I would like to convert to DVI (or actually
>if possible even to ASCII (fonts/pix are not important in this file))...
>I have seen DVI to PostScript converters on uunet and pawl.rpi...but is 
>there anything that goes backwards???
>Kiron

Postscript is a general purpose programming language (ok, that's stretching
it a bit :-).  In general, it's possible to write impossible twisted code 
that will eventually produce character output.  The only sure-fire way is 
to print the page, and read it with a scanner.  

If your Postscript was generated by an application, and the application's
Postscript is not the twisted nightmare I've seen so many applications 
produce (I helped write a Postscript clone, so I've seen the worst), then
it might be possible to edit the prep script (Postscript-ese for the stuff
at the front of the file), to make executing the program just spit out the
text instead.

Of course some applications build their own fonts, and swap the ASCII 
meanings of the various letters around, so this is no guarentee - unless
you print the page in the first place.  TANSTFL.

-- 
Cliff Click, Software Contractor at Large
Business: uunet.uu.net!ficc!cliff, cliff@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5368 (w).
Disclaimer: lost in the vortices of nilspace...       +1 713 568 3460 (h).