Subject: Re: LispScript

From: [email-masked] (Steve Hyland)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 87 12:45:23 EST

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (David Smyth) writes:

>I was hoping it wasn't just me!  How many others HATE postscript?
>I'll summarize to the net.

I don't HATE PostScript, but I agree that it is unsuitable for humans
to describe a page or document.

>Also, what would be a better language?  PostScript reminds me of an
>intermediate language generated by a compiler, not a language suitable
>for human beings to think in.  I propose a new language which is high
>level, and is then compiled into postscript, with appropriate calls
>to dbg for source level (NOT PostScript) debugging.

PostScript SHOULD be an intermediate language, albeit one generated by
an application such as an editor, in which users can design a page. I
think, for the most part, it is used primarily this way. I don't know
many people who sit down and design a document by writing a PostScript
program.

I think you are confusing the end and the means.

>If you can't think of a specific language (I vote for C, or something
>very much like C), indicate what language capabilities should be there.

Not to trash C or anything, but why on earth would I want to discard
PostScript for a language which is easily as terse as PostScript. If
you happen to program in C, you might find it very natural to describe a
document in a C-like language. I don't program in C, I program in Ada.
However, I'm not going to propose Ada as a candidate, because it would
still require humans to be fluent in that particular language to do something
as natural as describing a document.

If you want a specific language, I think natural language is the sensible
alternative, although difficult to implement. What would be better than:

:Center the page number at the bottom of the page.
:Center the following text and draw a box around it.
Some text to put on the page.
:Make three copies

or something like that.

Even this approach is not nearly as effective as the WYSIWYG editors that
have proliferated and which are capable of printing on a PostScript printer.

Steve Hyland
SAIC