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 version 5 runs Under Microsoft Windows NT or Windows-95.  16-bit
compatibility has been dropped in this release.

Features:

  + full Level 1 implementation
  + uses TrueType or Type 1 fonts
  + understands PostScript document structuring conventions:
    can randomly access any page of any document.
  + handles colour (palette displays only)
  + anti-aliases text
  + can transfer PostScript documents to clipboard as graphics or text

For additional information on the RoPS product, plus answers to
various frequently asked questions, see the web pages at
www.giant-technologies.com/rops

--

RoPS builds aliases for the standard 35 fonts. The following font names
are recognised (TrueType fonts included with Office, or public domain
fonts obtainable from the Free Software Foundation under the GNU public
license.)

--For--            --Use--
AvantGarde         Century Gothic, URWGothicL
Bookman            Bookman Old Style, URWBookmanL
Courier            Courier New, NimbusMonL
Helvetica          Arial, NimbusSanL
Helvetica Narrow   ArialNarrow, Arial Narrow, NimbusSanL condensed
NewCenturySchlbk   Century Schoolbook, CenturySchL
Palatino           Antiqua, URWPalladioL
Symbol             Symbol, StandardSymL
Times              Times New Roman, NimbusRomNo9L
ZapfChancery       Monotype Corsiva, URWChanceryL
ZapfDingbats       Monotype Sorts, Dingbats

--

Version 5 includes: major update to GUI - 16-bit compatibility
dropped.  Minor fix to 'search' (match length was wrong); anti-alias
all fonts.  Printing now automatically scales to printer; can randomly
access unindexed docs (by scanning forward from start); HP PJL header
skipped; all params settable through dialogs; better colour printing;
<< & >>; added paper size selection; can 'cancel' stdout/stderr to
close job. Stack, array and dictionary size limits increased. Fixed
'reversepath' (it can't ever have worked ...), optimised 'roll',
badly aligned eexec could lose sync. All parameters now in registry,
<~ & ~>, removed arbitrary size limit for TrueType characters.

Version 4.5 adds the splash screen and registration information.
Bugs fixed: the 'space' character had zero width under NT4; rudimentary 
support for type 1 fonts added (no hinting yet.)  Yet another correction
to 'clip'.

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;
<cr><lf> 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
rogerw@centipede.co.uk
