Re: Writing PDF files

[Shark8 <onewingedshark@gmail.com>]

On Oct 17, 5:23 pm, Bill Findlay <yaldni...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> Thanks to everyone who has offered help with this.
>
> KDF9 is a historic British computer from 50 years ago:
>
>    <http://www.findlayw.plus.com/KDF9>
>
> I have written a KDF9 emulator in Ada 2005 that runs on MacOS X, Linux and
> Windows, and am now hoping to complete the set of KDF9 I/O devices it
> supports.  At option a Calcomp graph plotter could be fitted in place of a
> tape punch.  It interpreted 6-bit commands that directed it to move one step
> left/right and/or back/forward, with the pen raised or lowered.  That's it.
>
> All I need is the ability to create a line drawing specified by a series of
> such commands, so very basic vector drawing.  It would be good if users
> could see the plot immediately on completion, just by opening the plot file.
>
> PDF would seem to offer this convenience.  Thanks for the pointers to other
> formats that might do the job.  I'm not going to plunge into powerful
> graphics frameworks, partly to preserve portability and ease of building,
> and partly because life is too short; but some of the other suggestions
> might meet my needs.  Time to put my thinking cap on!
>
> Thanks again.
>
> --
> Bill Findlay
> with blueyonder.co.uk;
> use  surname & forename;

A possible "almost" solution would be to output PostScript program, as
it is a text-file*, and pump that through Acrobat Distiller or
equivalent.


* There is a binary format; but even the official documentation
presents it in a rather leery light.