Thinking in Postscript

Author : Glenn C. Reid
ISBN : 0-201-52372-8
Pages : 239
Publisher : Addison-Wesley
Publication Date : 1990

Book Excerpts:

This book is intended to provide a practical, intriguing, and fresh look at the PostScript programming language. PostScript is a mysterious language, powerful and cryptic. It is expressive and complicated and yet surprisingly simple. In order to master a programming language, you have to learn to think like the compiler or interpreter, and instinctively know how to solve problems. You develop a "tool kit" of useful approaches, proven solutions, and techniques. You reach an understanding that is based on analogy and connections with other things that you know.

This book helps you build a solid foundation of understanding for the PostScript language. It teaches you to become an expert programmer and to have confidence that you have written the best possible PostScript program. It shows you how to combine the elements of the language into a strong, well-designed, modular program that is easy to develop and maintain. It is not a problem-solving book, nor simply a reference to the language; it is a guide to developing programming techniques and to learning how to use the PostScript tool kit, which is filled with hundreds of individual operators.

Comparisons are drawn to other programming languages throughout the book, particularly to C, which is a very common language and one that is often used in the same environments where the PostScript language is found. If you are a competent C or Pascal programmer but you have had limited exposure to PostScript, this book should be exactly what you need. If you are a BASIC, Forth, or Lisp programmer, you should find this book at just the right level for introducing you to the PostScript language. If you think of yourself as an expert PostScript programmer, you will still find some useful techniques in this book, and it is a very worthwhile addition to your library of PostScript books, since it overlaps very little with existing material.

The most fundamental level of a program is the set of techniques used in the development of the program itself, regardless of what the program does. This book addresses that area of PostScript programming in a way rooted partly in computer science theory, encompassing algorithms and data structures, but it is very practically oriented toward real-world programming and programmers.

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