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42 points by frizlab

by teddyh

3 subcomments

I would guess that this was close to (if not the same as) the laser printer that Richard Stallman was so frustrated by that he created the concept of free software¹, just to never have to deal with unfixable bugs again?
It seems to me that moving the processing from the computer to the printer had a reasonable rationale, but has been a huge detriment to us all ever since; printers are notoriously, almost legendarily, mysterious and opaque. The NeXT machines moved the logic back to the computer (since NeXTSTEP had PostScript as part of its operating system), and I think it’s time that we do that as well.
1. <https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/stallman-kth.html>

by nxobject

0 subcomment

To put the mad profit that Xerox got from laser printers into context: Alan Kay estimated it alone paid off everything that Xerox had invested in PARC, and then a lot, lot more. (I think PARC in the 70s cost less than $10 mil annually.)

by DonHopkins

1 subcomments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19874245
DonHopkins on May 10, 2019 | parent | context | favorite | on: Why are 2D vector graphics so much harder than 3D?
Brian Reid wrote about page independence, comparing Interpress' and PostScript's different approaches. Adobe's later voluntary Document Structuring Conventions actually used PostScript comments to make declarations and delimit different parts of the file -- it wasn't actually a part of the PostScript language, while Interpress defined pages as independent so they couldn't possibly affect each other:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/fa.laser-lovers/H3us...
>By now you can probably see the fundamental philosophical difference between PostScript and Interpress. Interpress takes the stance that the language system must guarantee certain useful properties, while PostScript takes the stance that the language system must provide the user with the means to achieve those properties if he wants them. With very few exceptions, both languages provide the same facilities, but in Interpress the protection mechanisms are mandatory and in PostScript they are optional. Debates over the relative merits of mandatory and optional protection systems have raged for years not only in the programming language community but also among owners of motorcycle helmets. While the Interpress language mandates a particular organization, the PostScript language provides the tools (structuring conventions and SAVE/RESTORE) to duplicate that organization exactly, with all of the attendant benefits. However, the PostScript user need not employ those tools.
The Definitive History of PostScript
https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/designs/postsc...
>Primary Source: Brian Reid's 1985 "laser-lovers" Post
>This document preserves the definitive first-person account of PostScript's origins, written by Brian Reid on March 2, 1985 — just 11 months after Adobe shipped its first PostScript manual.
>Brian Reid was uniquely positioned to write this history:
>He was there. As a consultant to Xerox PARC during the Interpress design, he worked directly with the principals.
>His thesis advisor was Bob Sproull — one of the three architects of Interpress (with Butler Lampson and John Warnock).
>He saw JAM at Stanford in 1981 — the direct predecessor to both Interpress and PostScript.
>fa.laser-lovers was the Hacker News of 1985 — this wasn't a casual post but a definitive statement to the technical community.