Using PostScript as a General Purpose Computing Language

Python seems to be what's slowly killing Tcl/Tk, which itself isn't a half-bad language.

Oh, and *many* universities still require theses to be submitted in TeX!

I'm pretty sure that HP, way back when, made their calculators use RPN because they were convinced it was *better* than infix, not because of any technical limitations. I certainly find RPN more intuitive to use than infix.

Those languages are all "last generation" as well -- Python, C# and VB.net are what drive a lot of new job requirements these days. (And while we could sit around all day and argue the merits of various languages, these days I think there is a certain amount of "change for the sake of change" within the computer industry -- although a language such as Java or C# is supposedly an improvement over C++, realistically the percentage of people who'll ever be able to *appreciate* that improvement is miniscule. The vast majority of programmers don't even begin to stretch the boundaries of what any particular language can do, and as more and more "wizards" are used in programming environment, even that number is shrinking, IMO.)

You will have to pry my HP32S RPN calculator out of my cold, dead, clenched hands. "Equal" keys are for wusses.

John

At one time, they were even going to change their name to Packard-Hewlett.

HP15C for me.

Robert

You have at least one error: Ghostscript is supported in windows environments; there even was support for DOS (before Windows).

Then there is a second error: One does not have to have a PostScript printer; if you want to print to a PostScript printer in order to render something to that code, one can install the printer *driver* and direct the output to FILE instead of the (non-existant) printer.

"Brett Ludwig" tries again with a new account and a new name!!

Try some V I A G R A that might get you a rise.

Fuck man, TCL is the worste language i have ever used. Yuk. good riddance to it.

I am only just learning c#, an i realise the benifits over c++. Despite the fact, i still miss the control i have with c++.

because

Hewlett Packard -

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Why are you learning a dead language? It's a well-known fact that C and C++ has been a dead-end for almost a decade. If you really want cutting edge technology you should be learning VisualBasic.

Rita

An opposing view:

Postscript is a FANTASTIC language for a certain niche. A small niche, to be sure.

But let's say you need to print out some fancy graphics, like a custom label, personalized with a certain graphic, a serial number, and a bar code. AND print it out at 5 different sizes orientations and rotations. Hard to do, unless you use Postscript. Or you need to print out a variety of old radio slide-rule dials, some with bold yellow tick marks every 10Kc, some with red dots every 20Kc, some with linear frequency scales, some log. Some in Helvetica font, some with a stretched vertical garamond font. Hard to do, unless you use Postscript. Or you need to generate a LCD pattern, with 37 pie-shaped segments distributed evenly over 90 degrees, and evenly spaced connecting traces to pads arranged around a circular edge (to simulate a 6E5 eye tube), and be able to parametrically control the segment spacing, line widths, line spacings, pad sizes, pad spacings, and segment fill and colors.. Really hard to do, unless you use Postscript.

Postscript is MARVELOUS for many graphics applicatioins. I wouldnt write a number-crunching app in it, or a BIG app, but a page or two of Postscript can do wonders.

Uh, or a graphics program.

When I discovered Gnu/Linux about ten years ago I suddenly came to programmers heaven! I can not find much Visual Basic in my computer, so I do not know anything about it! What about emacs-lisp? I still prefer plain c.

Why are you suggesting that they learn an obsolete language? It is a well known fact that VisualBasic has been an obsolete language for 11 years. If you really want advanced technology, you should be learning OpenBasic.

Uh, or a graphics program which happens to have programming langauge class scripting capabilities. The point was that you can do these things flexibly and easily make changes, because the resulting output is derived from a descriptive source code which may be highly parametric, not a bunch of mouse clicks that would have to be done over to make trivial paramater changes.

As for graphics programs with proramming langauge class scripting capablities, the only ones that immediately come to mind are... postscript interpreters.

If you look back at Ancient Hacker's post and think about it, there's little if anything among his examples which, given the choice between a WYSIWYG graphics package and learning PostScript, any sane human without a surplus of extra time on their hands would consider to be =easier= to implement in PostScript. I grant you that unsane humans exist.

Ot the GIMP, which can be controlled with Perl or Scheme, both but especially the first languages that might actually be useful for something else once you've learned them.

I do that with Autocad and lisp

Yes, you're not missing much. Nevertheless, the Linux port of Visual Basic is at an advanced stage, for some reason. Working versions already downloadable:

I think one of the main reasons that the utterly stunning capabilities of PostScript are not a lot more widely known or more deeply appreciated is simply that nobody realizes how fast, simple, cheap, and easy using PostScript as a general purpose language has recently become.

You simply shove an ordinary ASCII textfile into distiller, and you are home free.

At ZERO cost and hassle if you already have access to full Acrobat or GhostScript.

I especially like to use PostScript to programatically write incredibly complex JaveScript programs for me, as in

And to create absolutely outstanding ultra-legible small size typography in ordinary .BMP bitmaps per

Or to build an eBay image theft detector, as in

Or to insanely simplify electromagnetic field analysis, as in

Or to do "architects perspective" correction to .BMP images, as in

Or fully automatic image background vingnetting as in

Or elaborate Bezier cubic spline manipulations, including constant width subdivision and four point fitting, as in

And, of course, to replace the utterly obscene PowerPoint with single ultra short fast loading files that look ridiculously better and distribute infinitly simpler, as in

More at

Additional free tutorials at

Consulting services available.

PowerBasic is great. It's a clean language, makes simple 1-file EXEs, and can run useful FOR loops at 30 MHz on my PC.

John