Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies
From: gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: PostScript Language
Message-ID: <99500022@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 27 Feb 90 17:38:59 GMT
References: <9447@imagen.UUCP>
Lines: 27
Nf-ID: #R:imagen.UUCP:9447:p.cs.uiuc.edu:99500022:000:1147
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Feb 26 17:14:00 1990


> Putting a real live interpreter inside the printer was a stroke of
> genius.

Remark: Too bad they didn't consider putting a compiler in the printer.

I agree that "clone" is a stupid term to use.  PC's don't execute C
clones, the 2nd PASCAL compiler was not a PASCAL clone, etc etc ad
infinitum.

Adobe has set a dangerous precedent by releasing a language that was
part proprietary, part public-domain.  Too bad they didn't have the
smarts to make the entire language public-domain.

Interpress failed because Xerox sat on it for several years ( >3).
Postscript forced Xerox to wake up and smell the coffee, too late.

Interpress theoretically has an ascii form, but the language went
further and specified a compiled binary form, which was a case of the
designers being too sure of themselves for their own good 8-).
This is probably a case of the fabled "second system" effect, where
they second version of something does *everything* and becomes a
hulking behemoth.

Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801      
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies