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- <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
- <html>
- <head>
- <title>Information specifically about the current release</title>
- <!-- $Id: Current.htm,v 1.13.2.2 2002/02/01 05:31:24 raph Exp $ -->
- <!-- Originally: current.txt -->
- <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="gs.css" title="Ghostscript Style">
- </head>
- <body>
- <!-- [1.0 begin visible header] ============================================ -->
- <!-- [1.1 begin headline] ================================================== -->
- <h1>Information specifically about Ghostscript 6.0</h1>
- <!-- [1.1 end headline] ==================================================== -->
- <!-- [1.2 begin table of contents] ========================================= -->
- <h2>Table of contents</h2>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#New_features">New features (since release 5.50)</a>
- <li><a href="#Changes">Changes (since release 5.50)</a>
- <li><a href="#Known_problems">Known problems</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#Usage">Usage</a>
- <li><a href="#Limitations">Limitations</a>
- <li><a href="#Graphics_bugs">Graphics bugs</a>
- <li><a href="#Non_graphics_bugs">Non-graphics bugs</a>
- </ul>
- </ul>
- <!-- [1.2 end table of contents] =========================================== -->
- <!-- [1.3 begin hint] ====================================================== -->
- <p>For other information, see the <a href="Readme.htm">Ghostscript
- overview</a>.
- <!-- [1.3 end hint] ======================================================== -->
- <hr>
- <!-- [1.0 end visible header] ============================================== -->
- <!-- [2.0 begin contents] ================================================== -->
- <h2><a name="New_features"></a>New features (since release 5.50)</h2>
- <p>
- (This is not a complete list of new features: see <a href="News.htm">the
- news</a> for details.)
- <p>
- Ghostscript now handles essentially all of PostScript LanguageLevel 3 and
- PDF 1.3 (Acrobat 4.x compatibility). See <a
- href="Language.htm"><b>Language.htm</b></a> for details.
- <p>
- The PDF writer now implements most of the Acrobat (TM) Distiller parameters
- for compressing and downsampling images.
- <p>
- The PDF writer now recognizes nearly all varieties of pdfmark, other than
- the Distiller 3.0 "named object" pdfmarks and the Distiller 4.0 "document
- structure" pdfmarks.
- <p>
- The PDF writer now handles text in all fonts, not just the 14 built-in ones,
- and implements the Distiller parameters affecting font embedding and
- subsetting. (It still usually converts double-byte fonts to bitmaps.)
- <p>
- 16- and 24-bit X Windows displays are now fully supported.
- <p>
- You now need only the header files and shared libraries, not the source
- code, if you want to use precompiled versions of the jpeg, libpng, or zlib
- libraries.
- <p>
- The syntax
- <b><tt>%</tt></b><em>iodevice</em><b><tt>%</tt></b><em>filename</em> is now
- supported with the <b><tt>-sOutputFile=</tt></b> switch, allowing you to
- send raster output to a piped command.
- <p>
- You can now use MMK or MMS to build Ghostscript on OpenVMS systems.
- <p>
- For driver writers, there are improved facilities for planar output,
- rasterizing directly into a driver-provided buffer, detecting bands that are
- all white or that only use a subset of the colorants, and providing CRDs
- from the driver.
- <p>
- The driver API now includes facilities for passing high-level text
- operations, completing the set of high-level operations (bitmap images and
- vector graphics were implemented in 5.50). See <a href="Drivers.htm">the
- documentation</a> for details.
- <p>
- Ghostscript as a dynamically linked library is now supported on the Mac as
- well as on Windows.
- <p>
- GNU readline was supported in most of the beta distributions for 6.0, but
- was removed at the last minute because of objections from the Free Software
- Foundation. Please see <a href="Make.htm#GNU_readline">here</a> for more
- information.
- <h2><a name="Changes"></a>Changes (since release 5.50)</h2>
- <h3>Directories and build procedure</h3>
- <p>
- The files in the release now have a more complex directory structure. In
- the table below, <em>top</em> refers to the top-level directory,
- <b><tt>gs</tt></b><em>n.nn</em>.
- <p>
- The <em>top</em><b><tt>/</tt></b> is where you create a link to the
- appropriate makefile in <em>top</em><b><tt>/src/</tt></b>. On all systems
- other than MS Windows, the build procedure does not write into this
- directory.
- <p>
- The files included in the Ghostscript release now are found in five
- subdirectories.
- <ul>
- <li><em>top</em><b><tt>/src/</tt></b> contains the C/C++ source code, the
- makefiles, and all other files needed to build the program. The build
- procedure reads from this directory but does not write into it. Nothing in
- this directory is needed at run time.
- <li><p><em>top</em><b><tt>/lib/</tt></b> contains PostScript and script
- files needed at run time. The build procedure reads from this directory but
- does not write into it. The contents of this directory are needed at run
- time and are copied by the Unix <b><tt>make install</tt></b> command.
- <li><em>top</em><b><tt>/doc/</tt></b> contains documentation. Copied by
- <b><tt>make install</tt></b>.
- <li><em>top</em><b><tt>/man/</tt></b> contains Unix <b><tt>man</tt></b>
- pages. Copied by <b><tt>make install</tt></b>.
- <li><em>top</em><b><tt>/examples/</tt></b> contains sample PostScript and
- PDF files. Copied by <b><tt>make install</tt></b>.
- </ul>
- <p>
- The build procedure creates two additional subdirectories,
- <em>top</em><b><tt>/obj/</tt></b> (or <b><tt>debugobj</tt></b> or
- <b><tt>pgobj</tt></b>) and <em>top</em><b><tt>/bin/</tt></b>. See the
- documentation on <a href="Make.htm">how to build Ghostscript</a> for more
- information.
- <h2>Other changes</h2>
- <p>
- If you are a developer working with the Ghostscript code in any way other
- than writing or modifying drivers, please read all of the "Incompatible
- changes" sections of the <a href="News.htm">release news</a> for important
- information.
- <h2><a name="Known_problems"></a>Known problems</h2>
- <p>
- See the <a href="News.htm">release news</a> for details.
- <h3><a name="Usage"></a>Usage</h3>
- <p>
- On a DOS system, interrupting the interpreter by typing control-C doesn't
- restore the display mode.
- <h3><a name="Limitations"></a>Limitations</h3>
- <p>
- <b><tt>serialnumber</tt></b> returns the same value in all copies.
- <p>
- Some floating point exceptions terminate the interpreter, rather than
- producing a <b><tt>limitcheck</tt></b> error.
- <p>
- The <b><tt>DCTEncode</tt></b> filter disregards the <b><tt>Blend</tt></b>
- parameter, and uses different <b><tt>QuantTables</tt></b> and
- <b><tt>HuffTables</tt></b> from Adobe's.
- <p>
- The DCT filters do not support nonintegral sample ratios. Also,
- <b><tt>DCTEncode</tt></b> will not create files with Sum(HS×VS)>10
- (regardless of the value of the <b><tt>Relax</tt></b> parameter) because
- they violate the JPEG standard; but <b><tt>DCTDecode</tt></b> will read
- such files.
- <p>
- The size of the execution stack cannot be changed dynamically. (However,
- the sizes of the operand and dictionary stacks can be changed.)
- <p>
- <b><tt>Separation</tt></b> and <b><tt>DeviceN</tt></b> color spaces are
- implemented, but devices that actually produce color separations are not
- supported: these color spaces always use the alternate space. The special
- color separations <b><tt>All</tt></b> and <b><tt>None</tt></b>, and the
- primary separations (<b><tt>Red</tt></b>, <b><tt>Green</tt></b>, etc.), are
- not supported.
- <p>
- <b><tt>execform</tt></b> and <b><tt>ucache</tt></b> are implemented, but
- they do not actually do any caching; <b><tt>setucacheparams</tt></b> and
- <b><tt>ucachestatus</tt></b> are dummies. (This only impacts performance,
- not functionality.)
- <p>
- The <b><tt>image</tt></b> operator honors the <b><tt>Interpolate</tt></b>
- flag in the image dictionary only for ImageType 1 and 3 images, only if the
- combined transformation (<b><tt>ImageMatrix</tt></b> + CTM) doesn't involve
- rotation, skewing, or X-reflection, and only for certain scalings and color
- spaces; <b><tt>imagemask</tt></b> doesn't honor <b><tt>Interpolate</tt></b>
- at all.
- <p>
- Some path-building operations that would generate a device coordinate
- larger than +/-2^<small><sup>19</sup></small> will cause a
- limitcheck. However, the common ones (<b><tt>[r]moveto</tt></b>,
- <b><tt>[r]lineto</tt></b>, <b><tt>[r]curveto</tt></b>, <b><tt>closepath</tt></b>) will not.
- <h3><a name="Graphics_bugs"></a>Graphics bugs</h3>
- <p>
- There are no known graphics bugs in this release.
- <h3><a name="Non_graphics_bugs"></a>Non-graphics bugs</h3>
- <p>
- The <b><tt>definefont</tt></b> operator (Subrs (type 1 fonts)) expects
- arrays but won't accept packed arrays.
- <p>
- Syntax errors occurring within a binary token do not produce the error
- message specified by the Adobe documentation.
- <!-- [2.0 end contents] ==================================================== -->
- <!-- [3.0 begin visible trailer] =========================================== -->
- <hr>
- <p>
- <small>Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Aladdin Enterprises.
- All rights reserved.</small>
- <p>
- <small>This file is part of AFPL Ghostscript. See the
- <a href="Public.htm">Aladdin Free Public License</a> (the "License") for
- full details of the terms of using, copying, modifying, and redistributing
- AFPL Ghostscript.</small>
- <p>
- <small>Ghostscript version 7.04, 31 January 2002
- <!-- [3.0 end visible trailer] ============================================= -->
- </body>
- </html>
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