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ps;1 or ps -- problems with the postscript application type

1992-03-27 15:36:21
One of the serious interchange problems with postscript files as an
application type is that the reference given in the MIME document

     [POSTSCRIPT]  Adobe  Systems,  Inc.,   PostScript   Language
     Reference Manual,  Addison-Wesley, 1985.

is not adequate to ensure interoperability of documents from one
systemto another. To take a small example, the above document places
no constraints upon fonts or font names.  However, most people
actually desire to transmit documents in the postscript format which
they can actually print and view; if I send you a postscript file that
uses fonts and character sets which you do not have installed on your
printer or in your display-based postscript viewer, you will not be
able to read my document.

Frankly, I don't think this working group has the temperment to create
a truly interoperable definition of postscript outside of a particular
implementation. You'd probably at least want to limit the fonts
assumed to exist on the printer, and also require that conformal
message bodies not execute system-dependent operations. (The spec
includes as commentary some warning to implementors and some fairly
vague language about 'message senders should avoid the use of
potentially dangerous file operations', but shouldn't the avoidance of
these operators be REQUIRED of senders?)

Given how poorly constrained this is, I'd suggest seriously
considering removing the postscript type also from the base document
and creating another ad-hoc group to work out the interoperability
issues if it is desired.

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