🚀 go-pugleaf

I discussed this with Sam face to face (we're about 100 feet apart).
For those who missed it:
In article <114@cci632.UUCP> sam@cci632.UUCP (Sam Mantel) writes:
>In article <449@ccird1.UUCP>, rb@ccird1.UUCP (Rex Ballard) writes:
>
>> Imagine a U.N. meeting with no interpreters.  Such is the state of
>> Mac software.  If there were one or more interpreters, the Mac would
>> be Irresistable.
>
>On any modern computer of any size, the operating system functions as this
>"UN Interpreter."  The mac goes much further than this; namely, the Macintosh
>Development Guidelines published in Inside Macintosh, the clipboard, and desk
>accessories, the ROM, the OS, the scrapbook, etc., etc.  Because of these
>"interpreters," the state of Mac software can be nothing other than
>thriving (of course there is room for strides to be made), and the MAC
>IS irresistable (in my humble opinion).
>
>Sam Mantel -- Roch, NY

Unfortunately, this is only almost true.

To prove the point. Draw a time chart in MacProject.  Put this
drawing into the scrapbook. So far so good.  Paste the scrapbook
into MacDraw.  Move a box, add some text, and make only a few
alterations.  Now, through the scrapbook, put the document back
into MacProject.  Now move a box.  The document is useless!

Another possibility.  Use the "clover-F" trick to get the document
into a postscript text file.  Edit this with MacWrite (as text),
add a few labled boxes, now try to convert that back into a
scrapbook drawing so we can use MacDraw.  OOPS, no can do?

Many of the Mac's "interpreters" can only go one way.  If, instead,
these interpreters were bi-directional, or could even be "interpreted"
by separate applications, the Mac would have much greater value.

Of course, even to get as far as I got, (postscript in a file),
required some "tricks" that aren't exactly intuitive.

In this group, how many of the "wanted" programs have been for:
MacWrite to Nroff?  Nroff to MacWrite?  Plot to MacDraw?
Tectronix to MacDraw?  Any Mac application format to something
that could at least be converted to non-Mac?  Any format
converter that would allow a Non-Mac format to be converted
to a Scrapbook or similar Mac application?

It has finally come to light, that the Mac can be fooled into
producing a "PostScript" (forth-like) text file that can be
read or interpreted in text form.   If there were a post-script
to image-writer interpreter, it wouldn't be necessary to leave
the Mac in MacDraw for 20 minutes while the picture was printing.
If there were a post-script to scrap-book interpreter, data
on other machines (such as unix) could be converted into pictures
that could be edited using Mac Applications.

All users are asking is that their data be convertable to a
non-proprietary format.  This is particularly important to
businesses, who want to maintain their property rights over
their data, independent of how it was created.  They wouldn't
use an editor that automatically made anything manipulated
with it "Property of AT&T, disclosure to anyone else prohibited",
trashed the generic text file, and left a copy in "proprietary"
format, which could only be printed, manipulated, and used by
that program.

If such things exist ("Generic" to Mac converters), don't just
tell me, tell the net.  The need is too great to be kept a secret.