🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <9006270115.AA21371@terra.oscs.montana.edu> uphwk@TERRA.OSCS.MONTANA.EDU (Bill Kinnersley) writes:
>Ulp, I don't want to get in between Woody and Glenn on this, but actually
>guys, PostScript is an 8 bit language, not 7.

True.  It supports 8 bits, but it is possible to express all programs in
7 bits, which is partly why I called it a 7-bit language.

>In fact, Aldus PageMaker produces PostScript files which contain 8-bit
>non-ASCII characters.  As far as I can tell, this is perfectly legal.

Perfectly legal often means that "it prints" on the one printer somebody
tested it on....

It's perfectly legal, but tends to cause all manner of problems when the
file is moved from the Macintosh environment.  This is mostly because the
world at large can't be assumed 8-bit clean.  Serial ports have parity
bits set; modems, software, electronic mail transport, bad cables--there
are lots of places to lose the 8th bit.  For good portability, you have
to stick with 7 bits.

But the point, as I remember it, was that it's not the serial port that
is limited to 7 bits.  In fact, the 8th bit has nothing to do with things
like control-C, control-D, etc.  It's the standard serial line PROTOCOL
that treats these characters as special.  And although, as Woody points
out, it is possible to circumvent some of these with things like DTR/DSR,
it's not guaranteed, and not always possible, depending on lots of
things.

The original discussion had to do with emulating other printers and how
come you couldn't pass arbitrary binary data down through the serial
port, which does present a bit of a problem.  We've been haggling over
just where the problem lies, but the more I think about it, the less
I think I want to use my LaserWriter II NTX as a LaserJet printer
anyway.  There are over 4000 applications that product PostScript, and
I don't own any computers that run software that doesn't produce
PostScript.  Or something like that.

But you're quite right, PostScript can be an 8-bit language.  I'm
sorry to belabor all of this, but for some reason I always jump in
when somebody says something like "Adobe in their *infinite* wisdom...."
PostScript isn't everything for everybody, but it's one of the best
designed pieces of system software that I've ever encountered.

I'd rather use PostScript for those things at which it is wonderful
than to complain that it doesn't do a good enough job emulating a
brain-dead printer.  But I guess things only get better when enough
people complain about them :-)

Glenn

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