Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!tekcrl!tekgvs!jans
From: jans@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM (Jan Steinman)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Why you should use NeWS as a tool to learn PostScript
Message-ID: <3971@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM>
Date: 21 Sep 88 17:41:44 GMT
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.
Lines: 44
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Before I launch into this, let me list my qualifications. I've heard of NeWS.
My Mac sends PostScript to a printer. I own (but have not completely read) the
Red and Blue. I tried some PostScript hackery once, but quit after several
hours of getting nothing but illegible error messages out of the printer. I've
been using Smalltalk for over four years.
Given such *extensive* knowledge, I side firmly with Don. When I try to
imagine how long it would take to learn Smalltalk without its environment, I
shudder. The real issue here is how much support an environment provides the
learner, and sending bits and pieces of code to a printer, walking half a
block, then waiting for the inevitable banner page filled with meaningless
error messages, followed by a blank page -- this is not a very productive
learning environment! The secondary issue -- separating the environment from
the language -- is not nearly as important for the initial learning process.
(How can former Pascal people be productive without knowing that printf() is
not a part of C?)
Perhaps I've been spoiled by Smalltalk. Perhaps I need some attitude
adjustment. But I think the current state of learning PostScript (as well as
the current state of software development in general) is summed up by a sign
someone here has hanging on their wall: "The Flogging Will Continue Until
Morale Improves." The dismal state of things is that we all eventually get
used to the flogging.
:::::: Software Productivity Technologies -- Experiment Manager Project ::::::
:::::: Jan Steinman N7JDB Box 500, MS 50-383 (w)503/627-5881 ::::::
:::::: jans@tekcrl.TEK.COM Beaverton, OR 97077 (h)503/657-7703 ::::::