🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul30.113455.13997@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu>
	tim@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu (Tim Pugh) writes:
>Please podon my ignorance but it would seem that PostScript is a great
>output file format but not readily available as an input format.  While
>I am able to open a '.ps' file in Edit, all I see is "raw" PostScript".
>WriteNow will not even show that a '.ps' file exists in it's open panel.
>While Preview is great for display of a '.ps' file, how does one convert
>it to an input format such as RTF or ASCII (without the PS commands)?

This is one of the most commonly asked questions in the newsgroup
comp.lang.postscript.  <-- blatant plug

The general answer is, "you can't."  PostScript is an honest-to-
goodness programming language, and the ONLY way to make sense of
arbitrary PostScript is to execute it.  Except for rigid subsets
(such as Adobe Illustrator format) that are basically data
structures suitably contrived to pass for valid PostScript, it's
impossible to do what you're asking for any but the most trivial
files (which generally means no reencodings, no kerning, etc.).
Sometimes you can get away with redefining a whole bunch of
operators (ref. distill) and get something meaningful, especially
if whatever generated the PostScript in the first place wasn't
deliberately mean-spirited.

					-=EPS=-

In article <1992Jul31.053336.6399@csus.edu> eps@cs.sfsu.edu writes:
>In article <1992Jul30.113455.13997@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu>
>	tim@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu (Tim Pugh) writes:
>>Please podon my ignorance but it would seem that PostScript is a great
>>output file format but not readily available as an input format.  While
>>I am able to open a '.ps' file in Edit, all I see is "raw" PostScript".
>>WriteNow will not even show that a '.ps' file exists in it's open panel.
>>While Preview is great for display of a '.ps' file, how does one convert
>>it to an input format such as RTF or ASCII (without the PS commands)?
>
>The general answer is, "you can't."  PostScript is an honest-to-
>goodness programming language, and the ONLY way to make sense of
>arbitrary PostScript is to execute it.  Except for rigid subsets
>(such as Adobe Illustrator format) that are basically data
>structures suitably contrived to pass for valid PostScript, it's
>impossible to do what you're asking for any but the most trivial
>files (which generally means no reencodings, no kerning, etc.).
>Sometimes you can get away with redefining a whole bunch of
>operators (ref. distill) and get something meaningful, especially
>if whatever generated the PostScript in the first place wasn't
>deliberately mean-spirited.
>

While it may be true that "we can't", surely it is true that NeXT *can*?
In other words, it must be possible to add some functionality to the
window server to say "give me the text in this rectangle"? (Maybe in
RTF. Lets forget about the graphics for the time being.) Since the window
server is interpreting the postscript, *it* must know where it is placing
the text and what font is being used?

Given the pervasiveness of postscript on the NeXT and the usefulness of
being able to extract RTF from postscript for cutting and pasting
purposes, I'm really surprised that no such ability exists.

Dave Griffiths

prim!dave@germany.eu.net (Dave Griffiths) writes:

>In article <1992Jul31.053336.6399@csus.edu> eps@cs.sfsu.edu writes:
>>In article <1992Jul30.113455.13997@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu>
>>	tim@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu (Tim Pugh) writes:
>>>Please podon my ignorance but it would seem that PostScript is a great
>>>output file format but not readily available as an input format.  While
>>>I am able to open a '.ps' file in Edit, all I see is "raw" PostScript".
>>>WriteNow will not even show that a '.ps' file exists in it's open panel.
>>>While Preview is great for display of a '.ps' file, how does one convert
>>>it to an input format such as RTF or ASCII (without the PS commands)?
>>
>>The general answer is, "you can't."  PostScript is an honest-to-
>>goodness programming language, and the ONLY way to make sense of
>>arbitrary PostScript is to execute it.  Except for rigid subsets
>>(such as Adobe Illustrator format) that are basically data
>>structures suitably contrived to pass for valid PostScript, it's
>>impossible to do what you're asking for any but the most trivial
>>files (which generally means no reencodings, no kerning, etc.).
>>Sometimes you can get away with redefining a whole bunch of
>>operators (ref. distill) and get something meaningful, especially
>>if whatever generated the PostScript in the first place wasn't
>>deliberately mean-spirited.
>>

>While it may be true that "we can't", surely it is true that NeXT *can*?
>In other words, it must be possible to add some functionality to the
>window server to say "give me the text in this rectangle"? (Maybe in
>RTF. Lets forget about the graphics for the time being.) Since the window
>server is interpreting the postscript, *it* must know where it is placing
>the text and what font is being used?

>Given the pervasiveness of postscript on the NeXT and the usefulness of
>being able to extract RTF from postscript for cutting and pasting
>purposes, I'm really surprised that no such ability exists.

>Dave Griffiths

As the original poster of the query, finding there was no NeXT supplied
way to do the above, I tried the Create application.  Since all I was
really trying to do was to fill in the blanks on a software license
for Andrew, I fould that Create does this job nicely.  However, I agree
with Dave that it would be nice if NeXT supplied us with a tool to do
this, perhaps built into Preview.

Tim
-- 
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