🚀 go-pugleaf

Urrrkh.  Woody, you're starting to sound like Don :-).

What's the big secret?  Anyone with a modicum of intelligence who looks at
an unencrypted Adobe font can figure out what the purpose of most of it is.
With all of Don's emphasis on "pixel locking" and so on, I'm surprised he
hasn't written an article about FlxProc and shown how it actually works,
and how such techniques can be useful in general in PostScript programming,
rather than just saying "look at what I found."  Look, I respect him as an
engineer and a writer.  I've got several of his books on the shelf next to
my desk, for example, and I think his "Incredible Secret Money Machine" is
one of the best books on being a technology entrepreneur that has ever been
written. I also think his columns talking about alternative binding methods
and printing materials are very well done and are a distinct service to the
on-demand publishing community.

However, when he starts talking about PostScript itself, he seems to go
off into left field (sort of like the the Monty Python skit where the
guy puts a bag over his head whenever someone says "matress" :-)).  After
reading his columns for several years I still haven't figured out what
axe he's trying to grind against Adobe, beyond "they didn't want me to
take it apart," which sounds a little childish even from a hacker from way
back.

Sigh.

Maybe I just don't have enough sense of the mysteriousness of PostScript,
but all of the things that Don takes so much glee in "revealing" seem
quite straightforward to me, such as:

 - Deglitching Bezier contours in device space (FlxProc)
 - Rounding overall font parameters in device space (BlueValues et al.)
 - Compensating for characteristics of the marking engine (Erosion functions
	and parameters)
 - Factoring out common features such as serifs, bows, and so on (Subrs)
 - Encoding glyph contours and composite characters in as compact a format as
   possible (Subrs and CharStrings)
 - Fulfilling license agreements with typeface manufacturers to prevent
   people from easily obtaining outline representations of characters
   (encrypted fonts and the infamous charpath "lockout" on pathforall).

These aren't evil, secret things, folks...  These are things that *should*
be in an sophisticated page imaging system.  The main reason that I'm waiting
with bated breath for the Type 1 font format description isn't so that I
can peek at Adobe fonts, or because it's a "secret finally seeing the light
of day," but because it will give me the tool I need to build fonts that
are both "hinted" and compact, at the same time.  One thing I do get irritated
about is reinventing wheels :-)...

If I want to satisfy my hackerish impulses, I can think of a lot more rewarding
things to take apart than my laser printer's intepreter...

Grumble.

Amanda Walker
InterCon Systems Corporation
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