We used PdB to develop HyperLook for NeWS, integrate The NeWS Toolkit components into HyperLook, and implement the SimCity user interface on SunOS/SVR4/X11/NeWS.
This discussion thread revolves around the concept of implementing Lisp-like macros in PostScript for creating more efficient drawing functions. The user "DonHopkins" highlights their work on the Open Look Sliders for The NeWS Toolkit 2.0, where they leveraged a Lisp "backquote" like technique to optimize special effects drawings. The user explains that this approach accelerates drawing at the expense of increased space utilization. They also propose a potential solution to space conservation by only expanding and promoting macros during tracking, then demoting them upon tracking completion.
DonHopkins shares several resources on NeWS, LispScript, and the PostScript compiler, and also refers to window management tasks in Forth and PostScript for comparison. Additionally, they discuss a paper on syntactic extensions to support TNT Classing Mechanisms and share a demonstration of the Pie Menu Tab Window Manager for The NeWS Toolkit 2.0.
Another user, "gnufx", appreciates the shared resources and brings up the metacircular evaluator in HyperNeWS or HyperLook as a potential speed bottleneck in the system.
DonHopkins responds by explaining the use of a metacircular evaluator (ps.ps) they wrote for debugging. They clarify that speed was not a concern as the evaluator was not used in any speed-critical situations. DonHopkins also discusses the technique of "PostScript capture," likening it to partial evaluation of arbitrary PostScript code with respect to the imaging model. They relate this concept to Adobe Acrobat's "Distiller" and Glenn Reid's "PostScript Distillery".
https://www.donhopkins.com/home/catalog/text/interactive-pro...
https://donhopkins.com/home/archive/forth/forth-postscript.t...
David Singer at Schlumberger developed a Lisp-to-PostScript compiler in 1987 called "LispScript".
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21968842
https://donhopkins.com/home/archive/NeWS/NeScheme.txt
Arthur van Hoff at the Turing Institute in Glasgow developed an object oriented C to PostScript compiler called "PdB" around 1990-1993:
https://compilers.iecc.com/comparch/article/93-01-152
We used PdB to develop HyperLook for NeWS, integrate The NeWS Toolkit components into HyperLook, and implement the SimCity user interface on SunOS/SVR4/X11/NeWS.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22456471
ChatGPT Summary of the above thread:
This discussion thread revolves around the concept of implementing Lisp-like macros in PostScript for creating more efficient drawing functions. The user "DonHopkins" highlights their work on the Open Look Sliders for The NeWS Toolkit 2.0, where they leveraged a Lisp "backquote" like technique to optimize special effects drawings. The user explains that this approach accelerates drawing at the expense of increased space utilization. They also propose a potential solution to space conservation by only expanding and promoting macros during tracking, then demoting them upon tracking completion.
DonHopkins shares several resources on NeWS, LispScript, and the PostScript compiler, and also refers to window management tasks in Forth and PostScript for comparison. Additionally, they discuss a paper on syntactic extensions to support TNT Classing Mechanisms and share a demonstration of the Pie Menu Tab Window Manager for The NeWS Toolkit 2.0.
Another user, "gnufx", appreciates the shared resources and brings up the metacircular evaluator in HyperNeWS or HyperLook as a potential speed bottleneck in the system.
DonHopkins responds by explaining the use of a metacircular evaluator (ps.ps) they wrote for debugging. They clarify that speed was not a concern as the evaluator was not used in any speed-critical situations. DonHopkins also discusses the technique of "PostScript capture," likening it to partial evaluation of arbitrary PostScript code with respect to the imaging model. They relate this concept to Adobe Acrobat's "Distiller" and Glenn Reid's "PostScript Distillery".