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I'm looking for a simple PostScript interpreter to read. What open source PostScript interpreters exist?

I know about Ghostscript of course and also about xpost. Oh, I've just found ralpage, but it does not compile out of the box in modern compilers.

lhf
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  • There is an excellent write-up of the ralpage interpreter in: http://www.amazon.com/Workstations-Publication-Systems-Rae-Earnshaw/dp/0387965270/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1374079473&sr=8-2&keywords=earnshaw+workstations – luser droog Jul 17 '13 at 16:45
  • @luserdroog, I know, I had a copy once but I can't find it right now. – lhf Jul 17 '13 at 16:52
  • Usenet search turns up one (in assembly): https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/comp.sources.amiga/postscript$20interpreter – luser droog Aug 31 '13 at 09:11
  • The original code is now available at https://info.computerhistory.org/aoc-postscript – lhf Dec 06 '22 at 17:04

1 Answers1

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I'm not sure there are any others...... Nobody sane would write a PostScript interpreter these days, and most of the old ones have vanished into the mists of history.

KenS
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  • I'd like to see the old ones, if someone knows where to find them. – lhf Jul 04 '13 at 14:38
  • I came across a few in Amiga archives, but they're all in assembly. – luser droog Jul 12 '13 at 18:20
  • @KenS I took a little offense when I first read this; but thinking back, I *did* have some issues back in '08 when I started work on xpost. +1 This is the truth. – luser droog Jul 15 '13 at 15:37
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    It is such an enormous task (I was told 3-5 man-years) that it really takes some messianic delusions to want to start work on it. What ultimately persuaded me was the fact that I had been dreaming about writing it since 1998. :D So, had I started out a little stupider, I might've been done already by '07??!! I make efforts to keep my messianic dreams in check, but I cannot deny that they're there. And this I fear properly raises the issue of sanity. Though I hope that further facts continue to dispel it. :) – luser droog Jul 17 '13 at 15:59
  • I'm busy working at one in spare time for over a year (or is it already 2 or 3?) :'( – juFo May 10 '17 at 06:22
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    People still use lisp, so you could be sane and want to write one. I actually enjoy programming in postscript. The bit that would be useful to me is just postscript without the graphical operators. It seems you can do pretty much anything is postscript that you can in lisp. I probably should learn enough lisp so that I could implement postscript. – kd4ttc Mar 03 '18 at 18:56