Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.lang.postscript > #1951

Re: Understanding driver output

Show all headers | View raw

In article <53e208bb$0$49555$c3e8da3$fdf4f6af@news.astraweb.com>, 
idprog@trust.com says...
 
> In my quest to understand a bit more about postscript  I've been looking 
> at what comes out of a Windows Postscript printer driver.

Umm, that's a bit like trying to understand assembly language by looking 
at what comes out of a compiler. Machine generated PostScript isn't easy 
to follow.

 
> Here's an example:
> 
> 5582 1340 M (Hello)S
> 6149 1340 M (World)S
> 
> I think this displaying the text Hello World,  but it's using M and S 
> instead of moveto and show.
> 
> These "aliases" seem to have been defined at the top the file:

They aren't what I would call aliases. PostScript is a programming 
language, so you can define routines and call them in your program.

In this case you have routines called 'M' and 'S' (PostScript is case 
sensitive)

> I assume this is done to try and reduce the file size?  Is this normal 
> practice elsewhere?

Its normal practice everywhere for printer drivers/application output, 
yes. There's much less excuse for it since we all stopped using 9600 bps 
serial lines to send PostScript to printers, but old habits never die.



			Ken

Back to comp.lang.postscript | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Understanding driver output idol programmer <idprog@trust.com> - 2014-08-06 11:51 +0100
  Re: Understanding driver output ken <ken@spamcop.net> - 2014-08-06 16:14 +0100
    Re: Understanding driver output rodd@panix.com (Rod Dorman) - 2014-08-06 19:06 +0000
      Re: Understanding driver output Ross Presser <rpresser@gmail.com> - 2014-08-06 12:13 -0700
        Re: Understanding driver output ken <ken@spamcop.net> - 2014-08-07 07:57 +0100
  Re: Understanding driver output luser- -droog <mijoryx@yahoo.com> - 2014-08-06 22:47 -0700

csiph-web