PostScript to ASCII-Converter (ps2txt)

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PostScript to ASCII-Converter (ps2txt)

From: cloister@milton.u.washington.edu (cloister bell)
Subject: ps2txt version 2.1
Summary: postscript to ascii converter.
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 1992 01:47:15 GMT

Due to popular request, here is my new version of this utility. This version supports regular postscript files via Iqbal Qazi's original algorithm, and files generated by dvitps via my algorithm and the -dvi option. If you're not sure whether or not to use -dvi, try it both ways; the difference is marked.

Improvements over the original

you no longer need to use the filename - for stdin. stdin is the default.
-dvi option added
cleaned up the code and control structures a *lot*
comments! what a concept.

Input can come from stdin, from - or from a file named on the command line:

Flags

-dvi for use with dvitps PostScript files.

Usage:

                ps2txt [-dvi] [-] [input_file.ps]

ps2txt extracts strings from a PostScript file. This version has been modified to correctly deal with the oddities of PostScript files generated by dvi-to-PostScript converters, so if you keep this and the original program around, you might want to rename one of them.

VERSION

1.1 Fixed bug dealing with comments.

1.2 By popular demand: put spaces between strings.

2.0 Fixed most problems of extraneous spaces and newlines between strings. added support for the ligatures ff, fi, fl, ffi, & ffl. re-designed the control structures, and otherwise cleaned up the code.

2.1 Put Qazi's original algorithm back in, and added -dvi flag to use my more specific algorithm. Also by popular demand. Re-wrote the command line parsing yet again.

History

Modified Qazi's program on Feb. 18 1992 so that it could do dvitps files well. Posted to alt.sources. Got feedback requesting support for regular PostScript files as well. Retrieved Qazi's original source code, and put it back in on Feb. 22 1992. While the original program concept and source code is from Iqbal Qazi, this version has had enough modifications that I am claiming it as my own. Qazi's sections are well marked if you want to see them.

Comments/suggestions to cloister@u.washington.edu

2.3.98 / Arno Spieth

Last modified: Mon Mar 2 17:47:50 1998 by Arno Spieth.