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 runs Under Microsoft Windows (3.1, 3.11, NT, Windows-95).  Both
16 and 32-bit versions are available.  You will need to install
Microsoft's win32s system to run the 32-bit version of the program
under 3.1x.  RoPS requires at least 4Mb of memory to function
efficiently.

Features:

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

RoPS is not free.  Users must purchase a licence at a cost of 20 UKP (30 USD).

To install RoPS on your Windows PC, unpack the rops.zip program into a
temporary directory, change to that directory and run the 'setup'
program.  You should then run the 'fontscan' program before running
RoPS for the first time.

--

Late-Breaking Information

You can now change the name of the .ini file to use, with a switch on the
command line.  Copy the default rops.ini file (after running fontscan) to,
for instance, ropsalt.ini, and edit the new file as required.  Then run
RoPS with the -f <ini-file name> switch, e.g.

	<path>\rops.exe -f ropsalt.ini

This is convenient if you require different setups for printing and viewing.

RoPS has a number of user-configurable limits, which are set in the program's
.ini file.  The default settings are designed to work well on any PC, but are
too small for certain complex PostScript jobs.  If you have sufficient real
memory (16Mb or more) the following settings are recommended:

     [rops]
     vmsize=8000
     pathsize=32000
     screensize=2000
     imbuffsize=6000

Users of the 16-bit product are limited to a path size of 5460 elements.

--

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
rkww@centprod.demon.co.uk
