Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!caesar.cs.montana.edu!ogicse!littlei!leonardo.intel.com!davidl
From: davidl@leonardo.intel.com (David D. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: postscript
Message-ID: <830@gandalf.littlei.UUCP>
Date: 27 Feb 90 16:35:28 GMT
References: <1385@diamond2.UUCP>
Sender: news@littlei.UUCP
Distribution: comp
Organization: Akbar and Jeff's Workstation Hut
Lines: 26

> Is there an application that will open postscript files?
> I.E. take the postscript output of one document and 
> capture it in a file (command-f during printing) and
> have another program be able to open (and edit) the
> file?

This is a request that comes up a LOT, and it raises a question in my mind.  

I don't believe that an application that can read PostScript and let you
edit the result graphically exists OR EVER WILL EXIST in any truly useful 
form.  The problem is that PostScript is a page-description language, not a
graphics-document-description language.  A PostScript program describes
what the page looks like when output, NOT its structure or meaning.

Deriving a useful graphically-editable document from a PostScript program is
about as hard as decompiling machine code to well-written source code in a
high-level language with mnemonic variable and function names and lots of
appropriate, pithy comments.  Which is to say that it might be possible,
but would take a certain amount of AI.

The question is: am I full of it?  If I am, why hasn't someone written this
program?  There are big bucks to be made!

- David D. Levine, Intel IMSO Tech Pubs
  davidl@leonardo.intel.com
  "But that trick never works!"