Re: LaserGo, GS32

["..." adpf@xxxxxxxx]

Nathan--Thanks for getting the list reply addressing straightened out!

≪ I hope soon to purchase a separate ADOBE Type 1 font that does not
come with GS32 and try to use it in printing with XYWRITE4 for DOS; did
not receive much encouragement from other quarters about GS32, but their
name will go unmentioned at present. But I am happy with GS32, and if
anyone else has tried, am interested in the outcome. ≫ --James McSwain


James--Using nonresident Type 1 fonts requires adding or editing some
tables in your PostScript driver. If you haven't, see the xyW 4
Customization Guide, p139ff--especially FP, FA, font, and width table
documentation (since you're using a software interpreter, ignore anything
hardware-specific).

You will read on p185 that "Ideally, the width information is supplied by
the font manufacturer" and how to make an approximate table in less than
ideal circumstances. CG throws no light on making width tables when the
font manufacturer does supply width information (Type 1 fonts: .PFM
data--PostScript font metrics).

Absent the Type 1 font engine XyQuest would have provided from the gitgo
if it had understood the xyWrite/PostScript synergy, the xpl !T1_TNT
at the url below creates and adds width and all other tables to xyW3 PS
drivers. It also includes v4 data to give anybody who needs
a v4 equivalent a head start writing one.

≪ Disappointments: GS documentation is thin (a 73K .HTM file). ≫ --Carl
Distefano 

Carl--Leaning politely on LaserGo might be effective. LG must have the
files around somewhere that formed the 172pg manual that accompanied GS
when I bought it. Eight of 13 chapters are app-specific ("GoScript and
Borland Quattro," etc.); the others are introduction, installation,
printing, fonts, and tips, with appendices on error msgs, technical info
(config file), output devices, and sample printouts.

While having some heft handy is comforting, I doubt there's really
much more here than is in the package you got: If you and James have
GS32 printing (a monitor is just another device) with the generic
xyDos 4 PS fb<, there's not a lot more GS can do for you. PostScript
is what an app's PS driver makes of it; printing probs occur because
of inept use of the language by the app, and troubleshooting printing
probs, installing fonts, etc, needs must be app-specific. Programming
instruction isn't an interpreter developer's responsibility, but almost
everything on PostScript in print or online is about programming and
the Ross Smith book LaserGo discounts is the best primer I know.

≪ I wonder why GoScript often goes unmentioned in some basic on-line
texts, e.g., the comp.lang.postscript FAQ. Annie? ≫ --Carl

Considering that GoScript was the first software PS interpreter, curious
omission, isn't it? Rather like Ghostscript's curious nominal similarity
to GoScript when it arrived a year after LaserGo started advertising
GoScript in the trades. Aandi Inston is one of c.l.p.'s most astute (and
ascerbic) regulars and his site http://www.quite.com/ provides useful PS
advice. Aandi has written a software interpreter that NB PS guru
Tony St Quintin praises and I wish I could afford (c. us$300). I doubt
Aandi's interpreter is mentioned in the c.l.p. FAQ either. The FAQ is
GNU-sponsored, thus agenda-driven. As I pointed out the other day, GNU
Ghostscript is 18-month-old code supplied by the commercial developer
Aladdin. As ever, follow the money. 				--a

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