4 ms·

I recently saw an announcement[0] of a Z-machine in Postscript. The Z-machine is a runtime for text adventure games. Also posted on HN[1] but no comments were m

by pedrow 7y ago

I recently saw an announcement[0] of a Z-machine in Postscript. The Z-machine is a runtime for text adventure games. Also posted on HN[1] but no comments were made. [0]: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.arts.int-fiction/HNtntxCpcHA/IB0EiadzDgAJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.arts.int-fiction/HNtntxC... [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21367412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21367412

zzo38computer 7y ago
Yes; I wrote that program, and the Usenet message and the message on HN (which mentions the message ID for the Usenet message). If you have comments about it, I suggest writing a follow-up message on Usenet. PostScript is a real programming language and can be used for many things (especially graphics). I also wrote a JSON parser in PostScript (see message <1567977875.bystand@zzo38computer.org> on comp.lang.postscript), and then someone else post their JSON parser in PostScript too. I think PostScript isn't such a good protocol or document format, but it is good as a programming language. It is what I might use if I want to make a diagram (but unfortunately Ghostscript cannot produce SVG output; it can output PDF though, as well as many raster formats).
- haolez 7y ago
  Nice! Thanks for answering! Would you choose PostScript over Forth as a general purpose language?
  - zzo38computer 7y ago
    I think it would depend on what I am trying to make; there are advantages and disadvantages to each. In the case of the JSON parser, I think it is helpful that PostScript has data structures (such as arrays and dictionaries) and arbitrarily typed values like JavaScript and many other scripting languages have. In the case of Z-machine, Forth would probably do as well as PostScript (or probably Forth would do better, actually). Someone was unsure how useful would be the JSON parser I wrote in PostScript, but if you want to print some diagram based on data in JSON format, then it can be helpful. (I could implement Z-machine in Forth too if I wanted to do, but I have not done so yet because I have other things to do; I don't know if I might do so in future or not. I could implement Z-machine in any programming language with byte arrays, including assembly language (I started but haven't finished one in 6502).)

by pedrow 7y ago

zzo38computer 7y ago

Yes; I wrote that program, and the Usenet message and the message on HN (which mentions the message ID for the Usenet message). If you have comments about it, I suggest writing a follow-up message on Usenet. PostScript is a real programming language and can be used for many things (especially graphics). I also wrote a JSON parser in PostScript (see message <1567977875.bystand@zzo38computer.org> on comp.lang.postscript), and then someone else post their JSON parser in PostScript too. I think PostScript isn't such a good protocol or document format, but it is good as a programming language. It is what I might use if I want to make a diagram (but unfortunately Ghostscript cannot produce SVG output; it can output PDF though, as well as many raster formats).

haolez 7y ago
Nice! Thanks for answering! Would you choose PostScript over Forth as a general purpose language?
- zzo38computer 7y ago
  I think it would depend on what I am trying to make; there are advantages and disadvantages to each. In the case of the JSON parser, I think it is helpful that PostScript has data structures (such as arrays and dictionaries) and arbitrarily typed values like JavaScript and many other scripting languages have. In the case of Z-machine, Forth would probably do as well as PostScript (or probably Forth would do better, actually). Someone was unsure how useful would be the JSON parser I wrote in PostScript, but if you want to print some diagram based on data in JSON format, then it can be helpful. (I could implement Z-machine in Forth too if I wanted to do, but I have not done so yet because I have other things to do; I don't know if I might do so in future or not. I could implement Z-machine in any programming language with byte arrays, including assembly language (I started but haven't finished one in 6502).)