🚀 go-pugleaf

Thanks to Kevin Andresen [kevina@apple.com] I now know that it is possible to
adjust character sizes.  Unfortunately every time I try to modify his program I
get tangled into some problem with one or the other postscript device I use.

Grrr #1.
NeWS (the old 1.0 kind I think) refuses to create small characters, and forces
them to be bigger.  This is design error, in which someone thought that it
would to 'help' the user.  By rotating my characters, I can to avoid the
problem some of the time.  Anyone at Sun know why this was done?  Does NeWS 2.0
still have this stupid 'feature'?

Grrr #2.
The other device I use is an Apple Laserwriter IIntx; which is in general a
great machine --- except that there is no way to reset the darn thing, short of
turning it off and on again.  (The best contender, control-d didn't seem to
help at all.)  I asked about this here about a month ago and have still not
gotten a satisfactory solution.  Is there anyone at Apple who KNOWS the
solution?  A satisfactory solution is one that works under Unix, and is
complete tested code.  (Ie, exactly what do I send to the printer to clear
its little brain?)

So here's the problem:  draw a character of a specified height in cm, with
its bounding box just to prove you have it under control.  Have it function
on any device.  When I run the following code on NeWS, it works fine.  When
I send it to the printer, it works fine the first time.  On the second shot
I get a blank page.  What am I doing wrong?  How do I tell the printer to
forget anything I ever told it before?????

  Tom Schneider
  National Cancer Institute
  Laboratory of Mathematical Biology
  Frederick, Maryland  21702-1201
  toms@ncifcrf.gov

..........................................................................

(version = 2.00 of charbox.ps 1990 October 15 \n) print
initgraphics

/cmfactor { 72 2.54 div } def % defines points -> centimeters
/cm { cmfactor mul} def % defines centimeters

erasepage
12 cm 10 cm translate
90 rotate
4 4 scale

    /Helvetica-Bold findfont 30 scalefont setfont

gsave
    newpath
    0 0 moveto
    (G) true charpath 
    flattenpath 
    pathbbox % compute bounding box of 1 pt. char => lx ly ux uy
    % the path is here, but toss it away ...
grestore

pstack
    /uy exch def
    /ux exch def
    /ly exch def
    /lx exch def

1 setlinewidth
gsave
newpath
   0  0 moveto
  ux  0 lineto
  ux uy lineto
   0 uy lineto
   0  0 lineto
stroke
grestore

gsave
    0 0 moveto
    (G) show
grestore

showpage