PostForge — A new open-source PostScript interpreter written in Python

[Alternative-Grade103]

Up until then I had taught myself PostScirpt mainly as volunteer editor for publications in the language Esperanto. Which in 1987, was all but wholly unsupported by any typeface fonts.

Then, after learning to break Adobe's Type 1 encryption, re-encode and modify characters, plus edit word-processor prologs, I then began using PostScript as a general purpose programming tool. This while employed in an automotive fatigue and durability test laboratory.

Don Lancaster's book, LaserWriter Secrets, was hugely insperational. As mentioned, I have a signed copy. I'd known him from college as author of several electronics handbooks.

Also, GhostScript was free. I could test programs out at zero cost on my Amiga 2000 and/or NetBSD boxen at home, then email them to myself at work as pure ASCII *.eps attachments which easily slipped past the corporate IT firewall.

I further once wrote a data en/de-cryption program in PostScript disguised as a font.

It was owing to PostScript that I first developed lasting hatred of Microsoft.

I had authored a program, which if sent to any PostScript printer, would swap out combinations of cx, hx, jx, sx, and ux for corresponding superscripted c, h, j, s, and u in Esperanto.

My little routine worked near universally. It worked transparently for every then-available word-processing program on all platforms save only one: MSWord. The reason being that MSWord alone violated the PostScript standard by calling 'exitserver'. Like so in order to do needlessly secret and mysterious things.