🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug6.135513.21796@iscnvx.lmsc.lockheed.com> 
gary@iscnvx.lmsc.lockheed.com (Gary Henderson) writes about the flaws 
in PS interpreters. However, I suspect that the problem with the original 
poster is most likely related to the data transimision as they are useing 
simple SMTP mail for data transfer. The following is an Email I wrote to the
poster yesterday.

Yun Fei Zhang
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From zhang Wed Aug  5 15:20:36 1992
To: jkimball@src.honeywell.com
Subject: Re:  why is Postscript like a poorly-adjusted tape drive?
Status: RO

Yes, just as I suspected, you are using mail to trasmit the file. It is the 
cause of the problem. People will usually pay attention to the beginning of
the file to delete everything befor %! line but not to the end of the file,
where the problem will occurs. There is variety of possible for the mail to 
cause problem. The signature lines many people set-up in their mail 
environment will be one of them. Another common case will be that the SMTP
mailer will put an additional ^D character at the end of the mail message
which will halt the printer but may not the pagemaker. One more server 
case will be: if the file contains lines longer that 80 columns, some 
SMTP mailer set-up will arbitrary wrap the lines around make the PS completely
corrupt (you will not be warned as PS do not generate many error message, 
especially if it is the one in the printer). 

Yes, those on-line PS interpreters, Pagemaker, GhostScript, etc, are a bit
smarter than the ones in laser printers. They generate more error/warning 
messages and will tolerate certain mishaps in the PS file. This is why you
could view some files but not print them. Also, some laser printers do have
flaws in its HW/SW configuration, which make them perform unusally. 
For example, there are a QMS 810 and QMS 820 turbo printer at my site. Quite
a few time, some exotic PS files could not be printed by the QMS 820 but doing
well with QMS 810, though it is much slower.

Yun Fei Zhang