Re: Another fix for scs2pdf and more

On Tue, 12 Mar 2002 Dietmar.Buerkle@tsp-gis.de wrote:

> There is a paper called IPDS and SCS Technical Reference:
>      http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/prsys/pdfs/54453124.pdf
> On page 203 there is an explanation whether portrait or
> landscape mode has to be used. To decide this, the Page width
> and length is calculated as follows:
>
>                         Characters per line (MPP)
> Physical Page Width = ----------------------------
> (in inches)                    Font pitch
>                        (characters per inch, CPI)
>
>                        Lines per page (MPL)
> Physical Page Length = --------------------
> (in inches)            Lines per inch (LPI)
>
>
> If you always use the same Font and ignore Font commands
> (like SCD, SFG), this should be easy.

Here is why I don't really like this approach:  What if you never have any
lines that stretch across the entire width of the page?  Same goes for the
number of lines and the page length.  If we use the method above then the
longest line on the page (or document) will go all the way across the
page, no matter what.  Is it really supposed to?  Maybe so, maybe not.
That's why there is...

> Remember that some commands (like SPPS and SHM/SVM) use inch-based
> parameters and rely on correct font pitch. They have to be ignored too.

SPPS tells us the page size!  This is independant of the length or
number of any lines.  It makes the printout accurate to what the author
intended.  Now Scott found a case where SPPS is not specified.  I am going
to look if SHM/SVM are (and what they are - we don't do anything with
them).

James Rich
james@eaerich.com