groff-1.19: setpagedevice prevents printing

[Nelson H. F. Beebe]

                           Groff Bug Report

GROFF VERSION:
        1.19

MACHINE:
        Sun Ultra Enterprise 5500 (4 CPUs)
        [or any other platform]

OS:
        Solaris 2.8
        [or any other system]

COMPILER:
        c89 [Sun WorkShop 6 update 2 C 5.3 Patch 111679-09 2002/11/12]
        [or any other compiler]

INPUT FILES:
        none

COMMAND LINE:
        groff -man /usr/man/man1/ls.1

DESCRIPTION OF INCORRECT BEHAVIOUR:
        groff-1.19 added a setpagedevice command to its output via
        code in the file src/devices/grops/ps.cpp; setpagedevice was
        not used in earlier versions.  That command appears in the
        output PostScript as

        << /PageSize [ 595 842 ] /ImagingBBox null >> setpagedevice

        preventing printing on at least HP LaserJet 4M and Lexmark
        Optra/S laser printers.  No printed output was produced on
        either of them: the print job was just silently swallowed.

        When I selected the "Print PS Error:On" setting on the Lexmark
        printer control panel, it printed a page with

                ERROR: configurationerror
                OFFENDING COMMAND: setpagedevice
                EERRORINFO: Key = --nostringval--  Value = --nostringval--
                STACK:
                dicttype

        The [ 595 842 ] settings corresponds to ISO A4 format (210mm x
        297mm).  Even if this command had worked, it would likely have
        caused the printer to pause awaiting insertion of A4 format
        paper, which is virtually unknown, and unobtainable, in the
        USA.

        As an experiment, I replaced those A4-format settings with US
        A-format settings: 612 792.  The file then printed correctly
        on both printers.

SUGGESTED FIX:
        Remove the code in src/devices/grops/ps.cpp that outputs
        setpagedevice.  That command is anyway forbidden in
        Encapsulated PostScript.

COMMENTS:
        I have previously needed to include groff output as figures
        in other documents, including ones set by groff and by TeX. 
        
        In both cases, it took substantial work to massage the
        groff-produced PostScript to get it to work correctly as an
        inserted figure.  

        The problem is that groff produces operators which modify the
        underlying page transformations, interfering with attempts to
        scale, translate, and rotate the image at the current point by
        the inserting application.
        
        For example, try this:

                % groff -man /usr/man/man1/ls.1 > ls.eps
                % cat ls.tex
                \input epsf.sty
                \def \PSfig #1#2{\centerline{\epsfsize=#2\hsize\epsffile{#1}}}
                \PSfig{ls.eps}{0.10}
                \PSfig{ls.eps}{0.20}
                \PSfig{ls.eps}{0.30}
                \PSfig{ls.eps}{0.40}
                \PSfig{ls.eps}{0.50}
                \bye

                % tex ls.tex

                % dvips ls.dvi

                % gs ls.ps

        The ls.eps figures overwrite one another, instead of being
        properly scaled.

        Part of the problem is a lack of a proper %%BoundingBox
        comment in the groff output: that is where the default
        page dimensions should appear.
        
        I added
        
                %%BoundingBox: 0 0 612 792
        
        to ls.eps, and reran tex, dvips, and gs. The output is better
        positioned, since TeX now gets the correct bounding box, but
        text still overwrites text very badly.
        
        It would be very nice if groff could be changed to produce
        output that can be used as Encapsulated PostScript figures.

        Here's a small script that I wrote several years ago to scan
        PostScript files for the operators forbidden in Encapsulated
        PostScript:

        % cat ~/bin/FIND-BAD-POSTSCRIPT
        #!/bin/sh
        # Find forbidden PostScript operators in the files specified
        # on stdin.
        # [21-May-1999] -- update with extended list for PostScript Level 3,
        #                  from pp. 802--803 of the PostScript Language 
Reference
        #                  Manual, 3rd edition, 1999.
        # [29-Jun-1996] -- update to show matching bad operator
        # [23-Oct-1992]

        # Level 2 list (19 operators):
        # 
/banddevice|grestoreall|nulldevice|setpageparams|copypage|initclip|quit|setsccbatch|erasepage|initgraphics|renderbands|setscreen|exitserver|initmatrix|setdevice|settransfer|framedevice|note|setmatrix/

        # Level 3 list (36 operators):
        nawk '
        /^%/    {next}
        
match($0,/[^A-Za-z](banddevice|clear|cleardictstack|copypage|erasepage|executive|exitserver|framedevice|grestoreall|initclip|initgraphics|initmatrix|nulldevice|quit|renderbands|setblackgeneration|setcolorrendering|setcolorscreen|setcolortransfer|setflat|setglobal|setgstate|sethalftone|setmatrix|setoverprint|setpagedevice|setscreen|setshared|setsmoothness|settransfer|setundercolorremoval|startjob|statusdict|undefinefont|undefineresource|userdict)[^A-Za-z]/)
 {
                print FILENAME ":" NR ": " $0 ": [" substr($0,RSTART,RLENGTH) 
"] illegal in EPS file"
        }' $*

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Nelson H. F. Beebe                    Tel: +1 801 581 5254                  -
- Center for Scientific Computing       FAX: +1 801 581 4148                  -
- University of Utah                    Internet e-mail: address@hidden  -
- Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB        address@hidden  address@hidden -
- 155 S 1400 E RM 233                       address@hidden                    -
- Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA    URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe  -
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