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2 comments about PostScript(R) Language Program Design (APL).

1. I consider myself a hardcore programmer, but I have not programmed with postscript before. When my job required postscript options added to the printer drivers, I started with this book. I now believe it would have been better to start with a beginner's guide and a reference manual on postscript. This book is great if you are already programming in postscript and want to better your skills with it



2. This is a book intended for those who want to write drivers and stuff. I'm not that guy. I just want to know enough about how it works to respond to needs as they arise.

   You know? Just because I want a web server on my machine doesn't mean I want to write an HTTP stack from scratch. I'll probably just find what works and adapt it to my purposes.

   Here's a specific example relative to PostScript:

   I needed to create an application for someone who wanted a custom driver that would print different state-related labels on their printed images.

   Did I run off to the Program Design book to figure out how to write it from scratch? No way, man. My advanced status within the cigarette consumption community requires continued proficiency through hourly breaks, thus making this sort of focused activity quite impossible.

   Instead I looked in other drivers that had what I wanted, then printed to file, viewed source, and then pulled the code out as I felt appropriate. Quick, relatively easy, and demonstratively slothful.

   Get this book if you want to learn how to write drivers. Better, get this book and display it prominently so others think you know how to write PostScript drivers.

   Just get this book. Hell, its worth the money.

5 comments about PostScript(R) by Example.

1. Although I found this book to be accurate, I did not enjoy it. Concepts jumped from chapter to chapter without any order. The index is totally lacking. It covered graphics completely but failed on handling bitmaps. It left text formatting to your imagination. As a programmer, I need to create reports. This book left me out in the cold. If you want to manipulate graphics using PostScript this book is for you. If you want to produce a spreadsheet on PostScript look elsewhere.



2. Although this book could be useful to the person who cares nothing of how things work, I found it extremely lacking in the area of defining the way Postscript works. From the outset, the book shows many examples which the authors touts as the best way to learn something. However, many of the examples used have little or no explanation of some of the cryptic commands contained within. You end up wasting a lot of time scratching your head trying to find out *what* is going on. It becomes a matter of wading through the entire book since many terms are not even listed in the index. A glossary and perhaps a command reference would have been extremely useful in this book.



3. In fact, I could barely get through it.

   My introduction to PostScript was through the Language Reference Manual and the Supplements. Plus it was quite helpfil that I was surrounded by PostScript gurus.

   By the time I got this book it read like a Dr. Suess novel. Bored, I was.

   Skip it.




4. This is an extremely helpful book, *if* you are a little familiar with PostScript and want to know more. Although it suffers a bit from lack of organization, the subsections are fairly self-contained and are generally extremely clear. As a hobbyist, my primary interest is in PostScript drawing rather than text manipulation, and this book has good coverage of drawing and graphics. My understanding of PostScript was greatly deepened by this book. (I finally understand dictionaries!) PostScript level 2 is discussed in some detail, which is unusual among the available texts. I have looked at several books and have not found a better intermediate level text.



5. The book provides too many examples. Some of them (30%) are useful.
   The rest are boring. The definition of the Current Transformation matrix is wrong (colums and rows are exchanged) showing that the author has no idea about linear algebra and matrix products.
   However this is the only book available for me, so I had to learn
   PS with it.

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1 comments about PostScript and Acrobat/PDF: Applications, Troubleshooting, and Cross-Platform-Publishing.

1. I work for a major supplier of prepress hard- and software. It is often difficult to find accurate extensive backgroud information on essential technologies like PostScript or PDF and this book fills this void perfectly. It is a goldmine if you want to look beyond the simple "select this, click that" type of manuals and take an detailed look at the way PostScript, drivers, printercommunication,... work.

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