RoPS --- Roger's PostScript The RoPS interpreter is an implementation of the level 1 PostScript programming language interpreter described in Adobe Systems' book, the 'PostScript language reference manual'. RoPS is not an Adobe approved product. The name 'PostScript' is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. RoPS runs Under Microsoft Windows (3.1, 3.11, NT, Windows-95). Both 16 and 32-bit versions are available. You will need to install Microsoft's win32s system to run the 32-bit version of the program under 3.1x. RoPS requires at least 4Mb of memory to function efficiently. Features: + full Level 1 implementation + uses TrueType fonts + understands PostScript document structuring conventions: can randomly access any page of a conforming document. + handles colour (palette displays only) + anti-aliases text + can transfer PostScript documents to clipboard as graphics or text RoPS is not free. Users must purchase a licence at a cost of 20 UKP (30 USD). To install RoPS on your Windows PC, unpack the rops.zip program into a temporary directory, change to that directory and run the 'setup' program. You should then run the 'fontscan' program before running RoPS for the first time. -- Late-Breaking Information You can now change the name of the .ini file to use, with a switch on the command line. Copy the default rops.ini file (after running fontscan) to, for instance, ropsalt.ini, and edit the new file as required. Then run RoPS with the -f switch, e.g. \rops.exe -f ropsalt.ini This is convenient if you require different setups for printing and viewing. RoPS has a number of user-configurable limits, which are set in the program's .ini file. The default settings are designed to work well on any PC, but are too small for certain complex PostScript jobs. If you have sufficient real memory (16Mb or more) the following settings are recommended: [rops] vmsize=8000 pathsize=32000 screensize=2000 imbuffsize=6000 Users of the 16-bit product are limited to a path size of 5460 elements. -- Version 4.4 is primarily a bug-fix release. Added save-as and lru file list. Bugs fixed: a uncached type 3 character wouldn't advance the writing position, and uncached anti-aliased characters were corrupted; getprofile would gpf if the 'value' of a profile entry was empty; handling wrt readline is fixed; operators that should be disabled after setcachedevice are not disabled after setcharwidth; arcto with a zero radius does the required lineto; copy is properly range-checked during error handling; bind doesn't fail on read-only arrays; type 3 fonts with a translate component to their matrix work properly; a bug in clippath that resulted in a fatal error (unhook: can't find line) has been fixed; arcto is more relaxed about parameter checking (was producing invalidresult errors); the base font is properly restored if 'setfont' was called during a 'show'; the font cache BLIMIT is save/restored; fixed an oddity in name cacheing whereby 'end'ing a dictionary consumed VM. Version 4.3 fixes a rangecheck error in getinterval, adds the nohatch option, really fixes the fax m/c bug, handles errors during startup better, adds the 'don't build index' option, allows printing all pages of an unstructured document. Version 4.2 fixes a problem with certain fonts that made the output look like a faulty fax machine. A bug that prevented printing under Win95 has been fixed. Documents up to 1000 pages are supported. Version 4.1 fixed a number of problems experienced with earlier releases and in particular: long file names are handled properly; a 'fontscan' program has been added to create PostScript -> TrueType mappings automatically; Latin1Encoding has been added. Roger Willcocks rkww@centprod.demon.co.uk