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From: henry%angel@Sun.COM (Henry McGilton -- Software Products)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Proper postscript file?
Summary: Help Stamp Out Bad PostScript
Message-ID: <129246@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 14 Dec 89 19:09:02 GMT
References: <208400001@s.cs.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Lines: 45

In article <208400001@s.cs.uiuc.edu>, haskins@s.cs.uiuc.edu writes:

    *  This is a sample of the beginning and end of a
    *  postscript file that is produced by Borland's Sprint.
    *  In the third line, you see a ^D (which I have changed
    *  to \^\D).  Is that normal?  There is a program on the
    *  campus that will read a postscript file and squirt it
    *  to a postscript printer, and when it hits that ^D, it
    *  stops there and thinks it's done.

Yes.  That's because the printer communications protocol interprets
control-D as end of job.
    
    *  I end up having to manually strip it out right before I
    *  send it along.  So is it something that should be
    *  complained about, or ....?  There's also a ^D at the end, too.

Complain Long and Loud.  Control-D is NOT a part of the
PostScript Language.  Control-D is a part of the printer
communications protocol.  These extraneous contrlol-D
characters in PostScript files create unending headaches
for applications importing so called Encapsulated
PostScript from other applications.

	     <  PostScript Program Deleted  >

It's not in the application's domain to decide that
communication protocol codes should or should not be added
to PostScript programs.  That's the responsibility of
whatever printer control program is communicating with the
printer.  Applications should emit correctly conforming
PostScript, and should not make unwarranted assumptions as
to the ultimate destination of the PostScript.

Adobe are right -- applications that append control-D
characters to PostScript programs are wrong.


	................... Henry

+------------------+------------------------+---------------------------+
| Henry McGilton   | I saw the future,      | arpa: hmcgilton@sun.com   |
| Sun Microsystems | and it didn't work.    | uucp: ...!sun!angel!henry |
| Mt. View, CA     |                        |                           |
+------------------+------------------------+---------------------------+