Subject: WB import limitations?

From: Steven Bakker <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 11:27:10 +0100

Hi folks,

  I'm trying to use "wb" to import PostScript, which works fine for 
anything *up to* 32Kbytes, beyond that: no go.

I'm running sun-wb-1.59, gs 2.6.2 on a Sun:

$ uname -a
SunOS kappa 5.5 Generic_103093-06 sun4m sparc SUNW,SPARCclassic

Is this a typical Solaris limitation, or something to do with "wb"?
I read the docs that come with it, but could find no reference to the 32K 
(or any other) limit.

Any help would be appreciated,
Steven
--
Copywight 1997 Elmer Fudd. All wights wesewved.

---

From: Werner Sinz <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 15:55:43 +0200

> Any help would be appreciated,

You have to start wb with the Parameter:  -P <ps-size>

For starting wb out of sdr with this parameter I wrote the following
wrapper-routine:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh 

PS_GROESSE=200000       # Maximale Length of Postscript-Pages

echo
echo
"################################################################ws4/97#"
echo "   *** wb.wrapper for large PS-Pageser, till $PS_GROESSE Bytes
***"
echo "Args.: $@"
echo "       -P $PS_GROESSE"
echo
"################################################################ws4/97#"

/usr/local/vs/sun5/Mbone/wb/wb.static "$@" -P $PS_GROESSE
echo "wb.wrapper: Bye"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Werner Sinz

Universitaet Stuttgart (IPVR) | email: [email-masked]
Breitwiesenstrasse 20-22      | Tel.:  (+49) 0711/7816-425
D-70565 Stuttgart  	      | Fax:   (+49) 0711/7816-424

---

From: Mark Leber <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 09:20:33 -0500 (CDT)

Steven,

I have made a plugin for another wb.  The file size limitation default
is 32k, but with the -P option you may specify a higher limit.  Below
is the plugin and the plugin name.  The plugin has a file limit of 2Mb.

sdr2.plugin.s22.whiteboard.udp.wb.wb

**********************cut here**************************************
media:whiteboard
proto:udp
tool:wb
fmt:wb
{
  attr:orient
  {
    attrname:Orientation
    attrvalue:portrait
    {
      attrvaluename:Portrait
      flags:-p
    }
    attrvalue:landscape
    {
      attrvaluename:Landscape
      flags:-l
    }
    attrvalue:seascape
    {
      attrvaluename:Upside-down Landscape
      flags:+l
    }
  }
  attr:recvonly
  {
    attrname:Receive-Only Mode
    def:true
    flags:-r
  }
}
flags:-t $(TTL)
flags:-P 200000
flags:-C $(SESSNAME)
flags:$(ADDRESS)/$(PORT)

*****************************cut here********************************

--mark

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark D. Leber                      | e-mail: [email-masked]
Computer Scientist                 | phone : (601)634-4607
USAE Waterways Experiment Station  | FAX   : (601)634-2301
3909 Halls Ferry Rd.               | WWW   : http://www.wes.army.mil/
Vicksburg, MS 39180                |
----------------------------------------------------------------------

---

From: Mark Handley <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 11:27:39 -0400

>For starting wb out of sdr with this parameter I wrote the following

My understanding is that wb doesn't do effective congestion control
when distributing postcript images - that problem is still research.
If you dump a large postscript image at high ttl, you will probably
generate congestion.  

Most of the time, you really should take the time to generate good
clean postscript (with no font inclusion, etc) and use lzps to
compress it.  Setting -P is no substitute - the limit is there for a
reason.

Mark

---

From: Steven Bakker <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 17:52:57 +0100

==> From: Mark Handley <[email-masked]> 
==>       Fri, 16 May 1997 11:27:39 -0400 

> compress it.  Setting -P is no substitute - the limit is there for a

Thanks to all who took the time to reply.  I got it working with the 
"wbimport" package and "lzps", though some of the files were still 50K, 
but hey, 50K's a lot better than 500K :-)

And as far as generating good clean PostScript is concerned: I can do that 
by hand, xfig can do it, tgif can do it, groff can do it, but take any 
Gates-ware and you'll end up with crap PS no matter what.  Unfortunately, 
it's too easy to use PowerPoint to create presentations -- damn those GUIs
:-^

Steven

---

From: "Mark L. Fausett" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 14:08:36 -0700

> compress it.  Setting -P is no substitute - the limit is there for a

Most assuredly;  

Still I can't count the number of times that some suit  hands me a
50-slide powerpoint presentation full of strange fonts and
bitmapped-logos, which of course needs to be presented immediately. 

The bitmaps on the background page are an easy fix -- DELETE;
Normalising fonts means searching every page -- easy but time consuming;
Compressing the postscript means I get 50 files -- the page recognition
depends on postscript comments which are compressed/made unrecognizable
by lzps.  ( rather than print 50 1-page postscript files, I cheat and
use pssplit -z :^)

If on a Mac, using LaserWriter 8 works wonders as well.

Generally, if I work hard at it I can get the maximum single-page
postscript size down to about 250k, with most slides under 40k.

Sigh;  One of these days I guess I'm going to have to sit down and write
a replacement whiteboard.  Until then, unfortunately I'm stuck with
"-P".