Re: Partially off topic: Ghostscript puzzles

["Patricia M. Godfrey" PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren wrote:

GSWIN32 is the GUI version, GSWIN32C is the command line version. They've both
been in \bin as long as I can remember. I mean, if GSWIN32.EXE was the Win3.1
version, it would be filenamed GSWIN16 -- no? 

Logical. But the docs (Use.htm) say, "There is also an older version for
windows [sic; lc] called just gswin32 that provides its own window for
the interactive postscript prompt. Except for Windows 3.1, gswin32c is
the better option..." I (mis)interpreted that as meaning 32 was for
Win3.1. Glad to have the differentia clarified and will make note of.

LIST the script -- it *tells* you how to use the script & where to look for
sample commands! Default output device is always the display (cf. gswin32c -?
|more). So: situate in d:\gs\gs8.53\bin, command:
 gswin32c ..\lib\prfont.ps
then, at the GS> prompt, command:
 /URWGroteskT-Bold DoFont
then hit carriage return to show consecutive pagefulls of characters (executes
the ShowPage command).

OK, that finally worked (the docs, being written for *nix, said
\Times-Roman DoFont, which I, like an idiot, was following literally).
But when I did it for the font I had added, it reported "Can't find (or
can't open font file c:\gs\sg8.53\Resource/Font/Barb.
Querying operating system of font files...Can't find this font on the
system."

So that at least establishes that GS is not recognizing my additional
fonts. I have all three files for each (*.afm, *.pfm, *.pfb) in
C:\gs\fonts; the docs say that GS looks there for fonts. But apparently
one must also add some information to \Resources? I suppose I should
look at those afm/pfm/pfb files in List and see if I can winkle out the
information I need to add them to FONTMAP.

x>  FontDirectory {pop DoFont} forall
After trying innumerable times and getting nowhere, as I was staring at
the screen, it finally got through from the retina to the mush that
serves as brains that those were curly braces{}, not parens. (And I used
to be a proofreader!)
Once it ran, however, the only fonts it finds are Times-Roman and
Nimbus. Obviously, something is skew-whiff in my configuration as far as
fonts go. Not your problem, and thanks for letting me at least get a
handle on what is wrong.

You know, this is really all that U2's TYP or XY2PDF commands do: they execute
PS commands in the interpreter. Everybody thinks it is so mysterious and
complicated -- it really isn't.

I realize the U2 routines call PostScript commands, but I've forgotten
what little PS I once knew (long ago, when I had a PS printer). And
PostScript is NOT the most transparent of languages. In fact, it seems
to be to computer languages what Basque is to human ones: sui generis.

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx