File:  [CSRG BSD Unix] / 43BSDTahoe / new / dipress / doc / intro.me
Revision 1.1.1.1 (vendor branch): download - view: text, annotated - select for diffs
Tue Apr 24 16:12:58 2018 UTC (8 years, 1 month ago) by root
Branches: MAIN, BSD
CVS tags: HEAD, BSD43tahoe
BSD 4.3tahoe

.eh '%'Interpress Toolkit''
.oh ''Interpress Toolkit'%'
.sh 1 Overview
.sh 2 "What is \*(IP?"
.lp
To describe \*(IP, we choose to quote from the preface of ``Introduction
to Interpress'' (see Appendix \f(RN1\fP for a bibilography):
.(q
The \*(IP standard defines the digital representation of printed
material for exchange between a creator and a printer.  A document
represented in Interpress can be transmitted to a raster printer or other
display device for printing, it can be transmitted across a communication
network as a means of exchanging graphic information, or it can be stored
as an archival master copy of the material.  A document in \*(IP
is not limited to any particular printing device; it can be printed
on any sufficiently powerful printer that is equiped with \*(IP
print software.
.)q
.sh 2 "What is in this distribution?"
.lp
The \*(IP Toolkit provides ``C'' language code
for the creation and manipulation of \*(IP files.
The package consists of:
.RS
	``C'' source files which define useful constants
.br
	a library of subroutines
.br
	executable utilities
.br
	documentation
.RE
Items one and two aid programmers in writing new application code.
.lp
A attempt has been made to keep the code portable.  While
development has occured under 4.3BSD Vax Unix, portions of this package
also run on Masscomp Unix, Vax/VMS, and IBM PC-DOS operating systems.
.lp
The executable utilities mainly transform files to and/or from \*(IP.
Below is a quick summary of the names of the programs and their function:
.RS
.ip "maha"
treats the laser printer as a line-printer.
Normally, it uses a fixed-width font so that columns will line up.
Options are provided to change the font, provide two-column output,
and print landscape (rotated) output.
.ip "dipress\(dg"
.(f
\(dg Unix only
.)f
post-processes the output from typesetter-independent \*(TR
and creates from it an \*(IP master.
.ip "iptroff\(dg"
A shell script which will call typesetter-independent \*(TR and then
``dipress''.
.ip "ipfe"
An editor to extract, modify and combine pages from \*(IP files.
.ip "ipmetrics"
converts fonts metrics from the \*(IP metric master format
to that of specific composing systems.
.ip "plot2ip\(dg"
converts Unix plot(5) format to \*(IP.
.ip "iptotext"
\*(IP files are encoded in binary.
We have created a parallel ASCII representation to \*(IP to aid in
reading \*(IP masters.  Since the mapping is one-to-one, \*(IP files
can be converted back & forth from binary to ASCII
without loss of information.
The ASCII syntax is documented in Section 5 of this document.

The programs iptotext and texttoip convert between these two representations
in the obvious way.  Converting to text is a handy way to debug
\*(IP files that are constructed using the C language interface described
in Section 4.  A text representation also provides a way for knowledgable people
to edit \*(IP files.  For example, it was used to debug \*(TR changes
to remove the cut-marks inserted by the standard 4.2BSD macros.
.ip "texttoip"
reverses the above transformation.
.ip "charset"
.EQ
delim $$
.EN
This program creates an \*(IP master of a 
.i "character set"
of a specific font in a given point
size in tabular form.  The Xerox Character Encoding Standard currently specifies
characters for a range of [0..$2 sup 16 - 1$] values.
This space is divided into 256 character sets.
Since this space is rather sparse, it's handy to know exactly which
characters your printer can print.  See appendix \f(RN1\fP for a reference
to the Character Code Standard.
.EQ
delim off
.EN
.ip "mp2res, restotext and stackres"
Xerox's Raster Encoding Standard (RES) is used to transmit
and exchange image data.  The program ``mp2res'' converts a
MacPaint file to RES format.  ``restotext'' converts an RES file
to a textual representation in a manner similar to iptotext.  ``stackres''
executes the RES file (an RES file is similar to an \*(IP file) and
prints out what is left on the stack.
.RE
.sh 2 "What is not in this distribution?"
.lp
The code provided in this distribution only creates \*(IP masters.
Functions such as communicating the master to a printer are beyond
the scope of this package.
.lp
For users of 4.3BSD Unix, XNS communications protocols are provided
on the standard tape.  For users of VMS, a Xerox software product called
``XNS/DEC VAX'' is available.  For users of the PCs, there is a package
offered by Xerox and 3Com called ``XNS/IBM PC''.  This list is not
exhaustive as we have heard of (but not used) other implementations.



unix.superglobalmegacorp.com

This archive runs on limited infrastructure. Preserving old code on modern bandwidth. Automated agents are requested to crawl responsibly.