🚀 go-pugleaf

Ag> I stress the benefit that a PostScript compiler would encourage programmers
Ag> to program in PostScript itself (i.e., not just as a display medium)
Ag> instead of more primitive languages.

AW> I mean, interpreted PostScript is plenty quick (in NeWS, for example), but
AW> it has it's share of primitive aspects.

Primitive aspects?  Hee hee, unlike C, right?  The speed of the interpreter is
relative.  Sure, it will fairly fly for `reasonable' requests, but this is not
a reasonable world.

AW> It's kind of like Forth in this respect

I tend to think of PostScript as the offspring of a wild fling between Lisp,
Forth, and a bunch of graphics primitives.  There is just as much Lisp `in'
PostScript as there is Forth.

AW> writing code to handle single operations is fine, but I wouldn't want to
AW> write a large application in it, even though it could be done.

This is kind of contradictory, as single operations can be the combination of
other single operations.  At some point, a combination of single operations
will take on the aspects of (thus become) a large application.  There's no
question that PostScript has at least the minimum functionality to do so.

The question you raise concerns the Ease and Convenience of developing such
applications in PostScript.  Now, it's fair to say that NeWS is an elegant
upgrade from page description to the graphical application/interface realm.
Examining historical precedent, GNU Emacs is an elegant upgrade from a text
editor to the terminal application/interface realm.  There are many parallels
between the two, although I would hesitate say that NeWS is to PostScript what
GNU Emacs is to Lisp.  They are certainly similar enough at the lower levels,
and the underlying languages are very high level and similar in expressive
power (once one becomes accustomed to the world of postfix notation).  Given
these relationships, its not inconceivable that they might follow the same
path.  It would make things immensely easier if there was a development
platform for PostScript under NeWS as good as the one for Lisp under Emacs.

Just pipe-dreaming, [Ag] gaynor@topaz.rutgers.edu