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- From: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis)
- Newsgroups: alt.sources,comp.sources.bugs,comp.text,comp.lang.postscript
- Subject: Psroff 2.0 PL7 Notes
- Message-ID: <1349@ecicrl.ocunix.on.ca>
- Date: 14 Feb 91 06:38:52 GMT
-
- Archive-name: psroff2.0/Notes.PL7
- Submitted-by: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis)
-
- [Psroff archive sites, please include this in your psroff area]
-
- Some notes on Psroff 2.0, PL7:
-
- [A package that converts CAT Troff into Postscript, HP PCL and ditroff]
-
- PL7 is the last patch that I will release for psroff 2.0. I'll
- be reissuing psroff in its entirety over one of the moderated
- newsgroups sometime reasonably soon as psroff 3.0. Partially
- because of the new ditroff input support feature, and partially because
- I made some mistakes in the patches (1 & 7), and there's some minor bits
- and pieces that didn't get fixed properly (mostly documentation).
- Now that at least one moderated source group seems alive again, it's
- a good time for it to go out and be archived properly.
-
- Psroff 3.0 will not introduce anything major other than the
- ditroff input support, and some additional support files, such
- as width tables for HP LJ III built-in fonts. I will be posting
- Ned Batchelder's psnup (a n-up postscript filter) to comp.sources.misc
- tonight. All I've added is a manual page and a shell script to
- wrap around the bare postscript that Ned did.
-
- Psroff will remain mainly a CAT Troff converter, and most of the
- install scripts will be oriented towards that. However, ditroff
- input support will also be there, and work to the full functionality
- of real ditroff, including pic etc. Except on HP Laserjets, where you'll
- be restricted to the point sizes available with CAT troff and there
- won't be any PIC support.
-
- At the end of this posting is a list of caveats about PL7, plus
- work arounds as I know them. I continue to encourage people who
- have trouble with it to contact me.
-
- Here's a bare feature list of 2PL7 and 3.0:
- - CAT & ditroff input support, producing postscript, HP LJ
- and ditroff output. Ditroff input support will be in 3.0.
- (currently under test)
- - Complete CAT and ditroff(output) functionality for Postscript.
- - Complete CAT functionality on HP Laserjets, provided you have
- access to good Roman fonts. Incremental downloading of fonts
- for optimization.
- - Output optimization capable of reducing the size by a facter
- or 3 or more, improving printer performance by a factor of up
- to 10, and good throughput through psroff/troff2ps itself.
- - Complete CAT to ditroff conversion.
- - Partial ditroff emulation with CAT troff. Eg: extended character
- set (3.0), drawing, pass-thru etc.
- - Extended pass-thru facilities to permit operation with
- things like psfig, postscript inclusion etc.
- - Compatibility with many other "backends": Sun Pageview (see
- below), AT&T xtroff, X windows xtroff & xditview, psdit
- (Transcript), tpscript, jetroff, HP Laserjet Postscript
- cartridges.
- - Portability with all versions of UNIX and CAT troff.
- (Config isn't the easiest thing in the world, but it appears
- as if psroff is sufficiently parameterized to build and use
- anywhere). Especially RISC/Ultrix & Apollo (two odd-ball
- versions of CAT troff).
- - Facilities for manipulating fonts, generating width tables, and
- looking at binary printer streams:
- - upload ditroff format width tables from postscript printers.
- - conversion of ditroff width tables to CAT width tables.
- - Display font characteristics, display bitmaps, merge etc.
- for both PK and SFP format fonts.
- - PK to SFP font conversion.
- - PK & SFP to Postscript bitmap font conversion.
- - Font display table generators.
- - CAT troff width table dumper.
- - Automated tool to generate full set of HP fonts and widths
- from TeX font distribution and other sources of PK's and
- SFP's.
- - HP Laserjet HP PCL dumper, including a primitive HP LJ
- to Postscript converter.
- - Automated build scripts and configuration testers to make
- configuration easier and do all of the things necessary
- to produce the fonts and width tables and install them.
- - Width tables for Postscript printers and HP Laserjet III (in
- 3.0), plus automated tools to build them from the supplied
- (and user-supplied) Laserjet fonts.
- - An S font in all CAT troff sizes for HP Laserjets.
- - Manual pages for the useable stand-alone tools.
- - Adapters for -mm, -ms, -man and -me to adjust them to work
- best with psroff.
- - Psroff shell script can be configured by parameter files.
- - Psroff shell script intended to be a "troff" replacement,
- in that the arguments are a superset of standard troff and
- does the same things.
- - Arbitrary order Postscript page flipper, which will produce
- page reversal, "book order", etc.
- - Testing facilities.
-
-
- Issues/Clarifications with Psroff 2.0 PL7:
- 1) Line starting with "%!" should be removed from lib/ps.lib, it
- confuses Pageview.
- 2) Box corner characters (\(lt, \(rt, \(lb, \(rb) use Postscript
- reversepath operator which isn't implemented in Pageview.
- Work arounds are being investigated - contact me if you need
- fixes.
- 3) if you pipe something into psroff without the "-" option and
- no specified macros, the macro adapter cmn.pre doesn't get
- included, and the width tables will be somewhat off.
- Use "something | psroff -" instead of "something | psroff"
- (This would also mean that ".fp"'s wouldn't work as well)
- 4) Apollo systems - contact me. In short, COFF is not the
- right answer. Build psroff but don't install it with
- HEADERSIZE 0. Then run:
- utils/dumpft -gv < /usr/lib/font/ftR | grep Guess
- It will output a series of HEADERSIZE guesses plus an
- error count. Set the HEADERSIZE to the guess with the
- minimum error count. Rebuild psroff and the width tables
- and install.
- 5) RISC/Ultrix troff has wierd width tables. In fact, it can't
- even use the ones that come with the Ultrix distribution!
- Use ASCIIWIDTHS definition in defs.h.
- 6) widths/widthps/* won't go thru ditroff's makedev program.
- Due to a minor syntax error in most of the width tables,
- plus an incompatible DESC file. Contact me if you need
- the fixed ones (this does not affect CAT troff output!)
- 7) Widths for HP Laserjet III's are available - contact me if
- you want them.
- 8) The FAX number on the test sheet is incorrect. I'm no
- longer at that address, and mail forwarding of FAXes is
- too slow. Patch 7 was supposed to fix it, but it broke.
- If you want to send me test sheets, send them to:
- C. Lewis, Box 13215, Kanata PO,
- Kanata, Ontario, Canada K2K 1X4
-
- And finally, because of the confusion between my psroff and
- Adobe's, I'm trying to come up with a better name for it - one
- that reflects what it really does. I'm open to suggestions!
-